#But most people acting like it's something huge or amazing irks me because there are soo many other good fics

[lady-shadow-and-darkness]

Idk why but I fucking hate being told to read popular fics. Oh? Oh you want me to read IWSYNTTR? Empire of dirt? I read the first chapters of those fics when they were airing and dropped them. Next. Oh you don't know any more? *Closes recommendations box*

[justiceraffles]

About the Gosho Boys and literary crime fiction

This is a lengthy text wall in which I ramble about detectives. It started out with me thinking about the Gosho boys and their relationship with classic mystery fiction and literary/fictional detectives and it ended up derailing into a Hakuba rabbit hole in which I overanalyse details pointlessly for hours because I guess that is simply how most of my free time is spent.

(Fair warning that this is probably ridden with mistakes because I am capable of only 1.3 thoughts at a time)

So, when it comes to Shinichi, Heiji and Kaito, they all have a literary character from classic detective fiction that they’re closely associated with. Namely, it’s Sherlock Holmes for Shinichi, Ellery Queen for Heiji, and Arsène Lupin for Kaito. The relationship they hold with each of these figures (and with crime fiction in general) is very different, but it’s quite telling of their personality, character, their relationship with literature, and their respective approach to their profession. I talk about each of them a little bit and then just spend half the time talking about Hakuba. 

Shinichi is born in a household where mystery fiction is extremely important. He is surrounded by this type of story and his parents nurture this interest actively. Detectives and mysteries permeate his life wholly. For Shinichi, Holmes is seen as the maximum exponent of a genre. Holmes is The Great Detective. The archetype, the one that defines what it means to be a detective and the one later writers will seek to emulate one way or another. Detective fiction is what it is today because of Holmes, so it makes complete sense for Shinichi to have him as his idol. Holmes is what he strives to be and it’s what people associate him with. 

Heiji is a lot more subtle than Shinichi is, but he is also very much a lit nerd. Ellery Queen is both a character and a pseudonym for the writers that created him. As a character, Ellery Queen is such a perfect choice for Heiji’s favourite detective. He’s a mystery writer who doubles as a sleuth and helps his father, a police inspector, in solving crimes. Wonder if that sounds familiar, huh. Aside from similarities in the character (I could go on about some passages that have such strong Heiji vibes I’d be here forever) the Queen novels challenge the reader very directly. They tell you to pay attention, that you are presented with the exact same clues as the detective and should therefore be able to solve the mystery as well. The mystery story is a competition and the author issues a challenge by presenting it to the reader. I love this because Heiji has a huge competitive streak, and this is highlighted from his introduction. To find that the stories he’s passionate about also encourage this side of him is just so fitting and appropriate. 

The case where Shinichi and Heiji meet always makes me think of the contrast between reading a Holmes novel and a Queen story. Personally, I feel like the enjoyment of a Holmes story often relies on letting yourself be awed by the deduction. You can follow along with the mystery but a big part of the charm is based on the detective himself and the way he explains the thought process that leads him to his conclusion. You’re meant to sit down and enjoy as Holmes explains himself, and admire his brilliance. There’s a focus on the truth and the way to reach it, which is very, very Shinichi. A Queen novel, on the other hand, invites you to play along as you read. You are on equal standing with the detective, and it’s up to you to reach the same conclusion he does. These are the principles of “fair-play” in mystery fiction. As it implies, it is very much a game! So Heiji challenging Shinichi to a battle of wits and deductions goes perfectly in line with what he’s reading. Holmes is the genius detective you look up to with admiration, Queen is a sleuth that invites you to solve the crime alongside him. These suit the vibes that Shinichi and Heiji give off themselves very well. 

Kaito is much, much different for obvious reasons. He’s not a detective, and he’s not nearly as much of a mystery geek as the others are. The entire KID persona is closely associated with Arséne Lupin because Toichi fashions it accordingly. Even if phantom thieves aren’t quite the same as Leblanc’s original idea for the Gentleman Burglar, they still have a clear origin in Lupin and there’s important similarities to be made between them. Storytelling-wise, KID heists work on the same principles as Lupin stories. You know the criminal is there, hidden amongst the cast presented to you, and you know he will carry out the crime. And, regardless of whether you have an inkling of an idea of how he’s going to pull it off or not, you still allow yourself to be amazed by his methods regardless when the trick is revealed! Even when the schemes are outlandish and border on the fantastical and unbelievable, the stories are best enjoyed when you suspend your disbelief and allow the plots and characters to be over the top. But well, the connection between Lupin and KID is fairly self-explanatory. So, rather than KID, I think it’s more interesting to think about the relationship between Lupin and Kaito himself.  

Kaito doesn’t seek to be seen as a modern day-Lupin in the same way Shinichi wants to be a modern day-Holmes. Unlike Shinichi who becomes a detective in great part because he has Holmes as his idol, Kaito doesn’t become a thief because of his admiration towards a literary character, but because of his love and admiration towards his father. Kaito dons the KID suit with pride because it’s something his father left behind, and he embraces each part of it because it can lead to answers and understanding. But, always cryptic, Lupin doesn’t provide a whole lot of answers and understanding, and neither does Toichi. Lupin admits that he struggles to recognise himself under all the disguises and roles he has played. The truth behind his father’s character seems to become more elusive the more Kaito becomes involved with thievery. The “gentleman thief” persona, despite being charming and theatrical, has consequences on a personal life. 

...And then there’s Hakuba. 

Hakuba is complicated. 

But, Raffles! You say, Saguru is another Sherlock geek!

Well, yes. Of course he is. The deerstalker outfit and him naming his hawk Watson make that clear. Hakuba is an absolute Holmes nerd. 

I’m here to read too deeply into it when it’s most definitely not that deep at all. But, there’s never enough information about Hakuba and I have a blast overthinking stuff. So that’s what we’re gonna do! 

Despite obviously being a big fan, Hakuba’s relationship with Holmes is different from that of Shinichi’s. 

First, we don’t get to see Hakuba nerding out about Holmes novels and stories in the same way Shinichi does. He doesn’t quote Holmes at length or go on about how much he loves the books. Instead, we know Hakuba’s a nerd because he’s apparently passionate enough about this character to include things associated with him into his own personal image and identity.

Second, there’s the way others perceive him. Shinichi and Kaito (as KID) get “Heisei Holmes” and “Reiwa Lupin”. Despite irking a couple officers every now and again, Heiji is held in high regard and considered a great detective by the police force. Hakuba has a considerable amount of fame, but he doesn’t receive the same amount of trust people place on Shinichi and Heiji. It’s easy to forget because Hakuba acts with a lot of confidence and familiarity around crime scenes, but several of his appearances highlight the way his presence is tolerated at heists because of his father’s influence and is generally seen as an outsider. The police take orders from Shinichi and look up to him for advice— it’s not quite the same with Hakuba. More often than not, Nakamori treats Hakuba like a visitor or observer than a consulting detective. All of this rambling to say that even though he presents himself that way, Hakuba isn’t (or, at least, isn’t seen as) the Holmes he admires.  

So, if not Holmes, is there anyone that suits Hakuba better?

I’d say yes and no. 

As far as I can recall, the series never makes any explicit comparisons or references to other detectives when Hakuba is concerned. That said, much like you’d associate the deerstalker and Watson to Holmes, Hakuba has some other quirks and behaviours reminiscent of other detectives. Now, I’m not here to say that Hakuba was made deliberately as a compilation of references to literary detectives. These similarities are admittedly mostly coincidences. That said, deliberate or not, I think an argument can still be made that the connections exist! And well, considering the lack of concrete information about Saguru, thinking about them is fun. So this is what I think: 

One of Hakuba’s most prominent quirks is his fixation with time and exactitude. His pocket watch is a memorable prop and being precise about minutes and seconds is an important part of his character. You can find very similar behaviour in Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, who also carries a pocket watch around and is extremely particular about punctuality and numbers. Another thing interesting about Poirot is that he’s most interested in the psychology behind a crime, in understanding the mindset of the killer. Poirot mysteries have each of the suspects explaining their own version of events, because the detective wants to understand everyone’s version of perceiving the truth. In other words, Poirot mysteries have a focus on the whydunnit. 

You can probably tell that now I’m going to gesture wildly at Hakuba’s “Why did you do it”

Speaking of Hakuba’s signature question, it’s probably also worth mentioning the Father Brown stories by G.K Chesterton. The sleuth is a catholic priest, and after his deduction and identifying the culprit, the stories usually end with the priest spending time with the criminal. Before an arrest is made, Father Brown has a private meeting with the killer (or thief). It’s implied that this is carried out as a personal confession of sins, and expresses a need to seek out an understanding of the motive as perceived by the criminal themselves. 

I say this because the catchphrase does come off as a little strange. It’s curious that Hakuba asks why when we usually expect the detective to be able to sort it out by himself. But, it’s really not that strange to find equivalents to it in stories that focus on the psychological part of the crime and empathy towards them. 

(Also worth mentioning that both Christie and Chesterton were presidents of the Detection Club, a group of writers during the golden age of detective fiction that based their stories around the concept of “fair-play” that I mentioned earlier when I was talking about Heiji.  

Back on track: Hakuba and Poirot share key similarities. 

HOWEVER! There are also differences between them. I’m referring to the fact that Poirot puts the most emphasis on this psychological level of a crime. Poirot says “I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash” On the other hand, I’d argue that out of all of the Gosho boys, Hakuba is the most fastidious about procedure. He has some level of knowledge of forensic investigation and places importance upon it.

Sherlock’s methods do draw inspiration from precursors of forensic science, so you could trace it back to that. You could also go to R. Austin Freeman’s Dr. John Thorndyke, who is inspired by Holmes, but places a heavier focus on the scientific method behind deductions. Thorndyke is probably the one to properly kickstart the forensic/medical sleuth subgenre that grows later with the improvement and development of DNA evidence and technology. We have Hakuba being observant enough to find one of KID’s hairs, and then use Hakuba labs to narrow his identity down. It doesn’t resemble Poirot’s methods, it also isn’t quite Sherlockian, but it does resemble other classic british sleuths!

OKAY, COOL. WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS RAFFLES. 

I’M NOT REALLY SURE! I NEVER KNOW WHAT I’M DOING! I JUST WANTED TO TALK ABOUT HAKUBA AND DETECTIVE STORIES. 

Alright. This is more of a personal interpretation/headcanon than anything else, but unlike the other three Gosho boys, who have one  clear inspiration/basis/model, I like the idea of Hakuba reading a vast array of detective novels and picking up the little habits, methods, that he finds interesting or comforting. The deerstalker, the name for his hawk, his pocketwatch, his signature question, his methods, his knack for competition, all of them handpicked from the things that he enjoys most about detectives. 

It’s also worth mentioning that all of the authors for these stories I’m associating with Hakuba are British. The thought of him being passionate about English authors as a way to understand his English side of the family is a headcanon I quite enjoy. And, technically, the same could apply to his Japanese side as well. I can imagine young Saguru reading Rampo’s Kogoro Akechi stories and also wanting a rival like the Fiend of Twenty Faces and jumping at the chance of chasing KID because how much he resembles the character. Or appreciating Akako’s cryptic clues because Rampo’s fiction also has supernatural edge to it. 

I don’t know. I just like the idea of Saguru learning about the world, his family, and himself through literature? This is pure, unapologetic self-indulgence on my part, I have to admit. 

Though, if I HAD to assign one specific detective to Saguru, I think it would probably be Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin. Poe’s stories with the character as seen as the start of detective fiction, and Dupin serves as the prototype for detectives to come — even Holmes, even if he doesn’t get nearly as much recognition as Conan Doyle’s detective today. Despite the fact that Hakuba is the original teenage detective in the series, and he’s also often forgotten and neglected by both Gosho and a big portion of the fandom. Even so, he paved the way for Shinichi and Heiji, and is very important regardless. 

Anyway! I don’t know why I wrote this and I am now very embarrassed but thanks for reading all the way!

[annabethy]

the seven and cows

based on this post by @blackjacktheboss because I thought it was hilarious

There’s something about Jason that irks Percy. He just has that effect on people, and the neat blonde hair and glasses sliding down his nose doesn’t do anything to ease Percy’s desire to drop kick him.

It’s the little things. The way he sits, tall and proud, at the head of the table as though they lived in a geocentric universe, and the world was Jason. He actually had the audacity to ask Annabeth to move from her spot, and Percy had never been more proud of her than that moment she shot him the look that said, touch my chair and I’ll break your neck.

“Percy?”

Percy’s blinks slowly, turning his head towards his girlfriend. Annabeth is looking at him, and he can sense the giggles she was holding back. Earlier in the day, he had made a rather loud confession about Jason being a prick, and she’d been teasing him about it all day. He’s sure she hadn’t missed that he was staring at Jason a second ago, face morphed into disgust.

“What is it?”

Jason frowns at Percy. “Have you missed the entire conversation?”

“I guess so,” Percy says nonchalantly, shrugging a shoulder. “Something about the wavelength of your voice just puts me to sleep, so.”

“Oh.”

Percy notes, preening, that Jason looks deeply insulted. It was too easy to bother that boy.

“Anyways,” Jason continues like the daddy’s boy that he thinks he is, “I was thinking—”

“Of course you were,” Percy mumbles. Annabeth muffles a choke into his shoulder.

“Is something wrong?” Jason asks. It takes everything in Percy not to scoff in Jason’s face because he just could not take him seriously. He doesn’t know where Jason got that whole superiority complex, but someone needed to knock it off of him real fast, and Percy would be honored to be the one to do it.

“Nothing,” Annabeth answers for him when Percy drops his face into his arms dramatically, his back heaving in silent laughter.

“I feel like he’s laughing at me,” Jason points out rather obviously, his eyes trained to Percy.

“Oh, I’m sure he’s not laughing at you,” Hazel tries hesitantly. She just looks more confused than anything.

“No,” Percy disagrees, lifting his head. “I’m laughing at you. I mean — god, you’re worse than Hera.”

Jason’s response is not so eloquent. “Huh?”

“Why do you pretend that you’re the best thing to walk this planet?” Percy asks, still chuckling under his breath. “You act like Hera, pretending you’re so amazing when really no one likes you.”

“People like me,” Jason says, but he words it like a question. He looks to Piper for assistance, but she just shrugs.

“He’s kind of right,” Piper says, “but that’s why I love you. You don’t care about what other people think.”

“But… what’s wrong with Hera?”

The entire room goes silent before Leo promptly bursts out laughing, slamming the table with his fists. “You’re joking! You have to be joking!”

“I’m not! What’s wrong with Hera?” Jason looks genuinely confused, his eyebrows scrunched together, and Percy wishes he had a stapler to throw at him.

“Did you somehow miss the whole Hera switching you and Percy, and also being a total ass?” Frank says.

Percy whistles. “Damn. And that’s coming from Frank.”

“Hera’s the queen of Olympus!”

Annabeth rolls her eyes. “You want to be queen of Olympus?”

He straightens. “Well… being king wouldn’t be bad.”

“So you want to be Zeus?” Leo asks, eyes twinkling. His lip twitches. “Dude, I don’t think that’s a life goal you want to have.”

“Hera’s not that bad,” Jason tries, his eyes lining with moisture.

“Did your mother drop you on your head?” Annabeth asks.

“Why do you have some personal vendetta against her?” Jason asks hesitantly.

“Her symbol is the fucking cow. What more reason do I need to despise her?”

Percy raises his hand for a high five. “You tell ‘em, babe.”

Jason pauses.

And then, “Do you guys not like cows?”

Annabeth takes a deep breath, closing her eyes and muttering something along the lines of god grant me the serenity.

“Literally what is wrong with you?” Percy asks, leaning forwards to rest his elbows on the table in front of them, glaring at Jason. “You like cows?”

“I think they’re cute.”

“Piper,” Percy says, “why are you dating him?”

“I ask myself that sometimes,” she answers, looking at Jason. “Cows? Really?”

“I didn’t know you all had some anti-cow agenda,” Jason defends. “My bad.”

Percy turns his head to look at Annabeth, who is still looking alarmingly close to having an aneurysm. He rests his hand on her knee, squeezing. She cracks one eye open to smile at him before she’s whipping around on Jason. Percy gets ready to watch this unravel, wishing desperately that he had some popcorn on hand.

“A cow. The nasty, huge, smelly cows that take shits bigger than your entire body mass? Those cows?”

“I feel as though you’re personally attacking me, and I don’t need this sort of negativity in my life,” Jason says.

“And I don’t need to be looking at someone who likes cows in the eyes, yet here I am!”

“Let me love my cows in peace!”

Frank raises a hand, trying to break in gently. Percy is a little sad, thinking he’s going to try to say something to ease the fight, but instead he says, “Cows are the most despicable beings I’ve met. Have you ever been to a drive through zoo? It’s bad.”

“Maybe if you gave them a chance—”

“No,” Hazel says, and Percy is surprised at the disgust she is able to muster.

“I—”

Percy threads his fingers in his hair, pulling slightly to ground himself before he leaps over the railing of the Argo II. “You like cows. We get it. You’re never going to recover from this.”

“Okay, but it would also be rude of me to not like cows because cows like me.”

“Oh, do you speak cow?” Annabeth asks, delirious.

“Well, no, but I can feel the energy they give off.”

“You’re disgusting,” Leo says.

“I want to break up,” Piper adds.

“Moo moo, bitch,” Percy whispers.

“You know what?” Jason pushes his chair away from the table and stands, shoving the metal rim of his glasses further up his face. “You’re all being very disrespectful right now. We were supposed to have a decent conversation about this quest, but instead you all decided to gang up on me, so enjoy figuring everything out for yourself. I’m leaving.”

“Going to cry to your cow pillow?” Percy asks.

“No,” Jason says, but his voice wavers as he’s already halfway out the room. Percy doesn’t even feel an ounce of guilt because it was a team effort. Jason was always rambling on about team bonding anyways.

Once he’s gone, the rest of the seven sit in the circle, staring at each other. Each person has a drastically different look on their face. Annabeth looks sick to the stomach, Frank looks uncomfortable, Leo’s over the moon, Piper seems as though she couldn’t care less, and poor Hazel just looks lost. And Percy?

Percy only has three words.

Moo moo, bitch.

[violetlunette]

Something’s been on my mind for a bit, so I decided to get it out. I’m going to talk about the fight Bakagou vs Uraraka at the sports festival, the effects on the story and his arc, and whether it would have been better if he lost.

Below isn’t exactly Bakagou bashing, but there is some Bakagou critical, though no harm is meant here. Still, if that’s not your cup of tea I would move on.

Before we get into the meat of it all, I want to talk about something that irked me; the out of nowhere gender inequality. Where did the hell did that come from? Even Tenya is like, “surely Bakagou will take it easy on a girl!” What the hell? Before this point, there were no gender discrepancies whatsoever. Lady heroes such as Mt. Lady, Midnight, and Miroku were all on the same level as their male counterparts, so where the hell did this come from?

This is just a trope that I hate in general. Unless your story is actually talking about and dealing with gender inequality and you’re willing to go all the way, don’t even bring it up. It feels like it’s only there so Aizawa can give his “why Bakagou is awesome speech” (ugh) which they could have fit in another way if they wanted it in so bad. I think almost everyone could agree that gender thing wasn’t needed and is annoying.

Anyway, time to dig into why you’re all here; Why I think Bakagou should have lost against Uraraka.

First off—HOW did he win? I can accept Bakagou winning against Monoma as it’s established in-universe that the hero teachers are willing to bend the rules for creative thought, even if it’s unfair. (Makes sense as they’re training these kids to fight villains who don’t play fair at all.)

However, where’s the logical explanation in his fight with Ochaco? How did he manage to make that big of an explosion? If I’m understanding his quirk correctly the size of his explosions coordinates with the amount of sweat he produces. That’s what the grenades are for; they basically collect his bomb sweat and his palms light the spark to set it off. In the fight with Uraraka, he doesn’t use anything to pool his sweat. So how did he release the explosion that size? It’s never been established that he could make a boom that big just with his palms. And if it was his first time, then he should have been injured at least, had some side effects as he’s not used to an attack that size. It wouldn’t take him out of the tournament as Recovery Girl could heal him, but it all would make more sense. (Not to mention take away Gary-Sue points.)

The biggest irritant though is that there was a perfect workaround that could have been used; HIS SHIRT. Bakagou could have torn off his shirt at the last minute and used the sweat collected to create the blast! Not only would this be a decent explanation for his attack but it would have shown Bakagou’s resourcefulness and cunning. (Such a simple solution!) If he did that I would easily accept that he won on his own merits. As is though, I need a legit in-universe reason to accept his victory was won by anything other than the narrative being unfair.

Another reason Bakagou should have lost is that it would have been an interesting twist to his arc while staying inline with it. All his life Bakagou was a big fish in a small pond. As a result, all his victories came easy leading to constant praise. Now he’s at UA where he’s finally fighting people on the same level as him, some even higher. However, the only people he sees as a threat are Izuku and Todoroki. The rest are nothing. He doesn’t see Ochaco as a threat at all. In fact, before their match, he looks down on her. If he lost to Uraraka it would have been a huge hit to his pride while opening his eyes. Bakagou made a big speech about how he was going to defeat everyone, yet he was beaten during his first match against someone he never even considered a challenge.

This works better in the story as well. Now Bakagou doesn’t want to face All Might head-on because he’s a cocky prick nor is he charging the villains because he’s being an arrogant idiot. Bakagou is doing it because he thought he was hot stuff, yet he keeps losing—to the Sludge Villain, to Deku, to Ochaco. Then his one victory only happened because he was forced to work with someone else. Even though he was always the best, always the winner, always being praised for every little thing. This causes conflict with the narrative he’s created in his head all his life. I’m the best! So why am I always losing? Out of desperation to prove something to himself, Bakagou charges headlong into the villains, not because of his pride. It’s still an idiotic act, but the reason is more sympathetic, to me anyway.

That being said, I would miss what originally happened; The only reason the villains took an interest in Bakagou was because of the way he acted after Todoroki lost. Without that, they would have no interest in capturing Bakagou and we would lose what’s arguably Bakagou’s best arc.

This is a rare moment where I gush about something concerning the boy, but I love everything to do with this; 

Bakagou was so arrogant and bloodthirsty that despite knowing he was the target, he charged the villains. This leads to the obvious, “what did you think would happen moment” where he’s captured. 

The events that follow aren’t necessarily Bakagou’s fault, but they did happen because of his actions. Long story short, All Might fought All For One leading to an amazing fight that ends in All For One getting captured—but also to All Might losing his powers. This means that All Might can no longer be a hero. As such the crime rate goes up by 3% and new villains appear.

Let me be clear; it’s NOT Bakagou’s fault All Might lost his powers. Nor is the crime rate going up. I am absolutely not blaming him for those. All of this would have happened anyway eventually, whether or not Bakagou got caught. And before anyone says it I am NOT saying Bakagou deserved to be kidnapped by the League of Villains. Of course, he didn’t deserve that! However, the fact is all that happen because of Bakagou’s choice and actions.

Bakagou was warned that HE was a target, yet rather than being smart and getting to safety, he decided to fight. This not only placed him along with his classmates in danger but also got himself captured. 

Bakagou made a choice and he paid for it, along with others.

THIS is what I live for—no, not Bakagou suffering! The arc has the right amount of setup with EARNED angst and drama. Not only that, but there’s finally a lasting consequence for Bakagou’s actions (society’s as well, but that’s another post). Most of all Bakagou realized he was wrong and tried to learn from it (till later, but I digress). This arc, plus another event, lead to him having a break down with Izuku that could have led to him finally realizing the error of his ways in a narratively satisfying way. (Before Chapter 120 fucked it up, but I digress yet again.)

None of that would have happened if he lost to Uraraka and that would have been a damn shame.

So, what do you all think? Whether you like or dislike the angry porcupine, which path do you think is better for the story and Bakagou’s arc? Would it have been better if he lost to Uraraka and had his pride damaged to the point where he charges the villains to prove himself?

Or is better that he won and was then punished for his arrogance by thinking he could take on a group of villains? Or do you think the villains would still be after Bakagou even if he lost to Uraraka? Or maybe the villains wouldn’t have turned up at the camp at all as they wouldn’t think to kidnap Bakagou?

(Please try to set aside personal feelings for the character as much as possible if you decide to reply, and answer honestly.)

[personasintro]

[6] Your Wedding Planning

⏤𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: The wedding planning isn't going smoothly as you thought it'd be and the issue is no one else than Yoongi's mother herself.

⏤𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: fluff, angst

⏤𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜: strong language

A/N: This is a part of series called ‘Away From You’. This drabbles will contain scenes that didn’t make it to actual series. You don’t have to read the series to actually understand this, but some of the drabbles will be involved around the plot.

Series link

drabbles index

“...so I was thinking more of like, balloons with your both initials. It'd be arched so guests could take nice pictures. I can send you some pictures of what I've in mind. It's hard to picture it when--”

“I'm sorry to interrupt you, Ms. Kim,”

As much as you don't feel comfortable to interrupt her, her mouth kept going for good twenty minutes trying to explain you all the plans she made and had in mind. Ms. Kim, or Nari, as she told you to call her but you don't because she's just your wedding planner who eyes your fiance anytime she sees him, you'd like to keep things professional with her.

For some reason, Yoongi thought it'd be great to find one of the best and prestigious wedding planners, that has planned a wedding for his cousin. You trust him in everything, but you're not so sure about this anymore. There's no doubts she's doing just her job despite of you telling her your exact vision for your upcoming wedding, but it's slowly becoming more irritating that you can bear.

Yoongi gave you the right hand to decide about anything that involves your wedding. It's a shame he isn't as much as involved as you'd like him to be, since it's not just your wedding, but you're aware how busy he is and honestly, Yoongi doesn't know shit about weddings.

However, you always make sure to keep him updated about every decision you make.

“But I really wish this wedding would be minimalist.” you remind her, like in every session the two of you have.

She opens her mouth, most likely telling you that she understands just for her to bring another new ideas in the next session, but she's cut off when the door opens.

Your fiance's head pops out of the door frame, his eyes searching the room until they meet yours and gentle smile tugs on his lips.

“Hey, I'm just stopping by to tell you I need to sort some things with my dad,” he calls out, stepping into the room. “How is it going?”

“Hello, Mr. Min.” Nari greets him, ignoring the way your mouth opens to answer your fiance. The irk of irritation sparks inside of you, but no one in the room notices your sour expression as Yoongi greets her back with a nod and smile.

“It's going alright.” you murmur, catching his attention as he brings you closer to him for a kiss.

Your cheeks burn, feeling Nari's eyes on you, but Yoongi doesn't seem to mind about another presence in the room, when he pecks you couple of times before he pulls away with satisfied grin. It's not like he made love to you the whole morning, making sure you feel every inch of him along with his kisses and touches.

“Nari has sent me some of her ideas and they sound interesting. Has she told them to you?” he asks, his eyes solely on you while all you can see is Nari's proud smirk from the corner of your eyes.

The fact that he calls her by her first name isn't as annoying as the fact, she actually reached out to him about the wedding he specifically wanted you to plan. It's becoming too much, especially with each phone Yoongi's mother makes to talk to you about her own ideas. She basically shows her disinterest in every idea you talk to her about. It's funny that she even calls you, since she isn't very fond of you marrying her son but well, there's nothing she can do about it. You're going to marry him whether she wants it or not, but she could let you plan your wedding without criticizing your every single idea.

At this point, you don't know which woman is being more irritating about this whole thing. Whenever you bring that up in front of Yoongi, as polite as you can of course, he always takes his mother side.

'She's just excited, kitten.' he'd tell you again and again, until you'd just drop the whole subject and pretend like nothing's wrong.

“She mentioned something.” you mutter, leaning against the wooden desk while crossing your arms over your chest.  

He gently grabs your forearms, caressing them with his thumb before he gives you a small peck. “Well, she's amazing in what she's doing. I've to go right now, see you later?” he asks, which you only nod to before he says goodbye to you and Nari one more time as he walks out of your shared apartment to meet his dad.

Two hours later of constant planning and talking about the wedding and you can't wait for it to be over. It's not like you don't feel excited to be planning it, it's just too much. You've discussed every single detail from guest list to the type of glasses and your head is ready to burst. Luckily, Nari stopped bugging you with her own ideas and only tried to suggest something when you asked her. For a few moments, you thought you're just being bitch for acting that way towards her because she clearly listened to you this time. Your moods is changing every ten minutes, probably the reason behind that is your period. However, it wasn't like you were rude when you reminded her for the hundredth time that you want the wedding to look simple and minimalist. You don't need a huge wedding full of guests you don't even know, which brings you to a current problem.

“I don't know any of these names. Has Yoongi added them there?” you ask her, reading all the unfamiliar names that are placed on paper.

The total amount of guests is two-hundred – way more than you were planning and you really doubt Yoongi wanted to invite so many people. He said it himself he wants the wedding to be small and casual, practically agreeing with you. You doubt he suddenly changed his mind. None of these names seems to be his or your family's, which makes you wonder if he has decided to invite people from the company, but he'd surely mention it to you if that was the case.

“Oh, no. Mrs. Min did, ma'am.”

Your brows automatically furrow, clutching the piece of paper more tightly with irritation crawling up your spine.

“She did?” you ask softly, but it comes through your gritted teeth.

You just discussed arrangements about flowers just a few minutes ago, just for you to found out that your previous decision to have white and peach colored roses where changed to hydrangea because it looks more elegant, according to one and only Mrs. Min.

As much as you respect her, since she's the mother of your fiance and future mother-in-law, she's really getting on your nerves. You're totally aware of her hatred towards you, but she's not going to ruin your wedding. If that's what Yoongi wants, the flowers and a huge guest list, you're willing to discuss it with him. But you're not going to have your wedding planned completely differently than what you've always dreamed of.

It just brings another set of thoughts of how it's going to look once you'll be married. Is she going to talk into your marriage? What about once you'll have kids? It's far away but it's something you need to consider. When you said 'yes' you never thought about how Mrs. Min could manipulate and influence everything.

“You know what? Let's wrap it up for today.” you sigh, ignoring the cautious look she gives you while she starts packing her things.

You close your eyes for a moment, headache approaching as you think about all the stuff that's still waiting for you, plus an upcoming conversation with your soon to be husband. When Nari is about to leave, you call her name causing her to stop and look at you with curious eyes.

“I'd love to be informed as soon as some changes are happening. Okay?” you ask her, raising a brow at her.

She's practically innocent in this, you know how Mrs. Min can be manipulative and the poor young woman is just doing her job. She's probably the same age as you, but Yoongi's mother can be intimidating.

“Of course, ma'am. I'm sorry for not informing you sooner.” she tells you but relaxes once she sees a soft smile playing on your lips.

“It's okay. Drive safely.” you tell her as you walk her up to the door, bidding goodbye for the last time.

You know Yoongi is home, you've heard him coming home and taking a shower like an hour ago and once you were done with meeting, you properly greeted him with a kiss saying you need to take a shower.

You spend good twenty minutes just standing there, contemplating whether to talk to him about the current issue or leave it. You know he really respects his mother and they've their own special relationship going on. It's important for him that the two of you have a good relationship and surely you, confronting him about his own mother won't help that. But you can't live like she wants you to. You're your own person and she won't be deciding about your future, just because her son is in it. So with that thought, you dress yourself into one of the most comfortable cotton pajamas you own, which Yoongi bought you and step into the bedroom.

He lays on the bed, his back resting against the headboard while he scrolls down through his phone with slightly furrowed brows. It's one of his focused looks he always wears and it's really cute.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” you ask precariously, putting the hand cream down onto your nightstand.

Yoongi locks his phone, tossing it on the mattress with softened gaze. “You? Anytime.” he grins causing you to chuckle at his playfulness.

“Is something wrong?” he asks, his eyes glancing at you with sudden worry as you shake your head, but it still comes out as an act of precariousness.

“Did you know your mother put some names on the guest lists?” you ask him, his furrowed brows hidden by his dark locks as he shakes his head.

“No, they must be her friends or something.” he shrugs and you stay dumbfounded, sitting at the edge of bed while looking at your fiance like he has just grew two heads.

“Her friends? On our wedding?” you slowly ask, making sure he understands your reaction and by the judge of his knowing look you know that he gets it.

“It's probably just couple of friends.”

“Yoongi, she added almost hundred new names on the list. It's not just couple of friends.”

As much as Yoongi's mother can be popular, you really doubt all of the people on the list are her true friends. You've never seen that woman to be friendly to anyone. How can she have so many friends? True friends, of course.

“I thought we wanted this wedding to be small. Why her friends have to be there? I don't know them and I really doubt you know all of them.” you tell him, your mouth moving itself as you let your thoughts and irritation finally out.

He sighs, rubbing his tired eyes before he looks at you.

“She has been planning my wedding since I can remember. It's probably special for her as much as it is for us.”

At that, you actually let a laugh of disbelief, not caring the way his eyes twist in hurt at your sudden reaction. You've always knew he wants you to get along with his mother, but he seems to fail to understand that you're not the problem.

“Good, but it's not her wedding. It's ours.” you remind him and again, he sighs.

He stays quiet, not giving you any proper excuse or explanation and you're somehow annoyed and hurt that he seems to be taking his mother's side again.

“She changed my decision about flowers as well.” you speak up after a minute of silence, watching how his eyes widen in surprise.

“She did?”

You only nod, just for you to be met with silence once again. It seems like he's debating about what to say but in the end, he just puts his lips into straight line.

But this is way more serious than he truly understands and it always seems like you're the one who's exaggerating, but you're not.

“You told me that I can plan it on my own, that you won't mind whatever decision I'll make. Yet, I'm still here, asking about your opinion everyday because your opinion matters to me. It's not just my wedding, it's ours. But I can't have your mother ruining and changing my every decision, just because it's not what she was planning. And I'm so tired of it, because it seems like my every decision is just being ignored by your mother and I've no authority in this.” you tell him while he watches you with cautious eyes, letting your words sink in.

“What are you saying?” he asks slowly, his freshly washed hair falling onto his eyes but he doesn't move to move them away.

You can smell his favorite aftershave mixed with the fabric softener you use and if it weren't for the current situation, you'd kiss him and enjoy his delightful scent. But that's not the case right now and you're just tired of being treated that way from his mother. It always brings you back thinking about your future.

“I don't think I can do this.” you tell him softly, biting into your lower lip to prevent yourself from showing any more hurt.

But now it's real. You've said it out loud – in front of him.

Yoongi is a smart man, he has caught what you're trying to say but he seems to be collected as he watches your every move with his sharp eyes.

“I don't think I can plan or have a wedding at this point. Not under this circumstances. I'm sorry.” you tell him, feeling your heart crack as you watch him slowly lick his lips.

He knows what you're trying to say, but he's frozen. You're not sure if he truly gets what you've just said since he seems to be in some kind of trance, so with the last fiber in your body you open your mouth, ready to say those dreadful words.

“The wedding's off.”

It's not the way your voice breaks, but just the words itself what causes Yoongi's eyes widen and he reacts immediately. He sits up so fast, making you think you've never seen him move so fast like right now. He clutches your hand in his as he crawls closer to you.

“Baby, no. Are you sure? Is that what you want?” he asks you, desperation filled in his voice while you see fear in his eyes. He checks your face, primarily your eyes that seems to be sad and slowly filling with tears.

“No,” you pout, your lower lips shivering as he gently cups your cheek. “But I can't do this.”

Maybe you're overacting because you really want to marry him. You've never been so happy like when Yoongi asked you to marry him. The memory itself causes you to feel excited and happy, butterflies flying inside of you, but the thoughts about his mother are stronger. She seems to be controlling everything in Yoongi's life and you were always that one thing out of her control. But now with her controlling your decisions and wedding which is supposed to be yours makes you think, that she's starting to control your life with Yoongi.

You're on your period, emotional for couple of days and annoyed with every single thing just like yesterday. You got angry at Yoongi for not putting down a toilet seat, which usually you don't mind. He even joked about your mood swings, making sure he kissed every inch of your skin to make you feel happy again. Or he tickled you until you started to laugh which didn't take that long.

Obviously, when you say wedding's off you don't mean an actual break-up. You love him and you always will. But maybe you just need to back-off from all the wedding planning and maybe get married later.

“I'm sorry. I know that she's your mother and you love her, but I just...” you trail off, looking down for a moment before Yoongi tilts your head so you can face him.

“And I love you as well.” he reminds you, kissing the tip of your nose before he keeps caressing both, your hand and cheek at the same time.

You sniffle causing his heart to drop, so he lightly kisses you onto your dry lips which you quickly lick once he pulls away.

“I'll talk to her, okay?” he promises, surprising you. This is the first time you hear him saying that. He chuckles at your doe eyes and grabs your both hands this time. He brings your hand where your engagement ring is decorating it to his lips, kissing the expensive diamond. “I won't let you get away from me. I want you to be my wife, I want you to be Mrs. Min.” he says, kissing the band that's wrapped around your finger for the last time before you smile, kissing him on his lips.

A huge rock falls down from your heart, swapped with happiness once again because you know that Min Yoongi is not ready to back away – especially when the two of you want to get married and nothing won't stand in your way. Not even his own mother.

“Hey dad, is mom here?”

If it weren't for the reason behind Yoongi's sudden visit, he'd probably laugh at the man in older age being lazily sprawled on the couch with a bag of chips sitting on his stomach. It's been awhile since he has seen him being so relaxed and not wearing a suit.

“Yeah, she's in the kitchen.” he answers, not surprised by Yoongi's presence when he saw him just yesterday.

He often makes sure to visit them more often, especially since he moved out and started to share an apartment with you.

“Thanks.” he says, snorting when his father just waves him off and stuffs his mouth full of snacks.

If his employees would see him right now, they wouldn't believe it's the same person who's in charge of one of the biggest companies in Seoul.

He makes his way towards the kitchen, knowing his way around more than enough despite of the size of their house. He grew up in this house, he could be blindfolded and still know his way around.

The walls are decorated with a bunch of photos of his parents and him, capturing every stage in their lives. From his parents being young, to wedding photos and Yoongi being born until now. It's nice to see those pictures every time he passes by. Despite of the house being modern and renovated more times that he can count, it still feels like a home thanks to those pictures. It's making him wonder if your home will be filled with wedding photos and your kids, the thought is making him feel some kind of different excitement. He wonders how many kids you're going to have and if they're going to share your beauty and habits. He can't wait for that stage in your lives, even though it's far in the future.

Surely your current apartment is decorated with some pictures of the two of you, along with Hoseok. But he wants to capture all moments in your lives and he can't wait until your walls are going to be filled with it.

“Hey, Yoongi. I didn't know you were coming.” his mother says, noticing her son first as she cuts an onion.

He makes his way to the kitchen, smiling at his mother as she slowly hums while preparing the lunch. “You can stay over lunch. I'm sure there will be enough food.”

The sight of his mother being in her casual pants and apron wrapped around her slim body makes him smile. He wishes you could see his mother this way. Surely, he's aware that she can be a little bit ruff on the edges, but not many people sees her this way. She's just being a mom right now.

“Actually, Y/N is cooking right now. I just needed to talk to you.” he carefully says, watching her eyebrows lift in surprise as she puts away the knife. Her lips sets into a frown but she doesn't remark anything, leaving that to herself.

“About what?” she asks curiously instead, wiping her hands in the kitchen cloth.

“It's about the wedding.”

He hates doing this, he hates that discomfort that he feels right now and he despises it even more when she opens her mouth.

“Ah! I'm glad you brought it up. I was browsing through different kinds of wedding flowers and I came across hydrangea. It's so beautiful. I made some calls and I arranged them for you.” she says enthusiastically, eyes filled with excitement along with her voice as she reaches for her phone that's placed on the kitchen island, to show him the pictures.

“Mom,” Yoongi sighs, shifting on his spot when she notices his weird behavior. She doesn't pick up her phone, her arm slowly falling down her side. “Y/N told me she wanted roses.”

Fuck, why is this so hard? He almost cringes because he has no fucking idea how to start and properly explain to her the main issue.

“I know, but roses are cliche and predictable. Trust me, I had roses on my wedding and I wish I would've done it differently.” she chuckles, remembering her wedding day.

“But that's what Y/N and I decided to have.” he slowly says watching the way his mother frown at that.

“She has no idea how to plan weddings. I won't let her ruin your wedding.” she almost snarls at her son, annoyance laced with her tone at the thought of you. Of course you're behind this.

“Our wedding, mom. It's not just my wedding.” he corrects her while she rolls her eyes at that.

“Honey, trust me on this. I want this wedding to be perfect for you.” she tells him, completely changing her attitude as she pleadingly looks at her one and only son.

“I know and I really appreciate this. But me and Y/N talk about wedding almost every day and every decision that's made is approved by the two of us.” he assures her, knowing she probably thinks it's all yours doing. He wants her to know that he's involved in it as much as he can. And you're more than sweet for making sure that he approves and is happy with everything.

“You added some guests on the list as well. What's that about?” he cocks his head at side, hating how she looks at him right now. She's surprised by his sudden questions. She never thought she's going to be questioned all of a sudden about this.

“Yeah, some of my friends.”

“Mom, you can't just add so many people to our wedding. We don't know all these people. We want it to be intimate and small. I don't need a huge wedding like you and dad had. We just want the most important people in our lives to be there.” he tells her kindly but is met with another frown.

“Do you really mind that or just Y/N?”

He hates how your name falls from her lips with so much distaste, but he only sighs in exhaustion. “Mom, I don't want any strangers to be there. I get it that they're your friends but they're not mine. If you want, invite one friend and plus one but that's all.”

She's frozen, standing behind the kitchen island with opened mouth as she processes his words. This is not what she planned and she knows this is not Yoongi's doing. It's all you behind all of this.

“Fine.” she mutters causing her son to let out a relaxed sigh.

He's aware that none of those people are really her friends. She just wants to show off her son, he knew it from the second you mentioned something about the guest list.

“Mom,” he says softly, looking at the woman that's seems to be in not such a great mood anymore. “I need you to let us plan this wedding. Alone. I appreciate everything you're doing but you're doing no good.”

“I was trying to help her, Yoongi. I've experiences and vision. Your wedding is going to be awful with her planning it.” she barks, not necessarily mad at him but at you. But still, she tries to compose her voice.

“It's not going to be awful because I'm going to marry the woman I love,” he tells her, no longer being able to hide a scowl. “So I appreciate everything you're doing but we got it.”

She scoffs, shaking her head. “She's going to ruin everything,” she comments under her breath but not silently enough for Yoongi not to hear. “What's that supposed to mean?” she asks, ignoring her previous remark as she looks up at her son.

“It means that I need you to back off.” he tells her and she gasps in shock.

He hates seeing her that way, but there's no other option. He's not going to let her ruin his non-existent marriage.

“I'm sorry, mom. I'll see you soon, okay?” he tells her and slowly backs away, heart shuttering when she doesn't say anything and just stands in the kitchen with saddened gaze.

When he walks back into the living room, ready to bid goodbye to his father before making his way home to you, he's stopped by his father's voice.

“She can be a little too much sometimes, son. Don't be upset with yourself,” he tells him, sitting up and dusting down the crabs on his shirt.

It's obvious he heard their conversation but there's nothing just understatement on his face. “She only means good.”

“I know.” Yoongi sighs, exhaustively rubbing his eyes.

“Tell Y/N I say hi, okay? I hope she'll come visit us soon.” he tells his son, a soft smile playing on his lips which Yoongi can only nod to.

“I will, bye dad.” he says, walking out of the house with mixed feelings.

He feels awful for talking to his mother that way but on the other hand, he couldn't be happier to go home and make love to his soon to be wife.  

[sparrowkingsley]

I'm Not Okay

Laurel had been awake for hours. Her mind was on overload. Sleep eluded her as she glanced at her phone over and over checking the time. After three hours of restlessness she had gotten up. Her body exhausted but her mind forcing it to move.

She couldn't stop thinking about the conversation that her and her mom had. What did she want? What did she want to do?

As a kid her interests were many yet sometimes so fleeting. Although she was a master at martial arts she didn't want a career in that. Oplympic fame had seemed cool but ultimately unexciting to her heart's desire. As a kid she had wanted to be a pirate, not a career her parents would want her to pursue to say the least.

Treasure hunting. Time jumping. Exploration was what she really wanted. Hadn't she just wrecked her best chance at that though? Would she be able to finish the Legend Program now? Would she even get back her time license? Most importantly what would this mean for her time with Heywood?

Heywood. Another dilemma her mind was fixated on.

It's not like Laurel hadn't noticed. Sure a lot of times she missed social cues. Her mind usually pulled her away from the things right in front of her. Distracted or overwhelmed by her own mind she usually annoyed most people. But not Heywood. Heywood always put up with her.

The looks they shared had changed recently or rather maybe she had just began to notice. She remembered feeling this change before when she had started to date Josh freshman year. He and her had been close and their relationship had went from, "he is a really great guy to hang out with" to "I really want to kiss him".

Before him she never even really thought about wanting someone to kiss her. It was confusing that she didn't want what other high school classmates seemed to. Then things changed when she connected with Josh.

Two months later it was over. Logically Laurel knew it wasn't her fault. As they spent less and less time together, Josh focusing on track and her devoting so much energy on her time schemes, the feelings had just dwindled away.

She tried to figure it out. Hoped they could work it out. Except she couldn't. She couldn't change things back to how they were when they started. So she broke it off and she lost him. Lost their connection and then lost their friendship.

So now, with Heywood, her best friend, the person she trusted and cared about more than anyone else ... if she ruined things with her? She couldn't lose her. She just couldn't.

Steady vibrations of a familiar sound pulled her away from her worries.

"Hey Sprout, you hungry?."

Her bullfrog continued his bellows till she dumped a few crickets into his large tank. As he hopped out of the water to devour them Laurel began to feed her other pets as well. Grab more crickets for Luna, her leopard gecko and her chameleon Judo. Open up her mini fridge for her scorpion Calypso's meal worms and one large, thawed rat for Sunshine, her boa.

As she opened up Sunshine's enclosure the snake slunk her head out demanding Laurel's affection. Laurel let the snake climb up her arm, up to her shoulders, the snake's tongue flickering against her cheek as she began to sing 'You are my Sunshine' softly. Sunshine satisfied with the attention then willing slid back into her home to enjoy her meal.

Now what?

Laurel tried to distract herself from thoughts of her best friend. Push ups. Sit ups. Pull ups. A few rounds with her punching bag. Still her mind wandered to the same thoughts.

Punch. Those amber eyes that were warmer than sunshine. Punch. Her long, wavy locks of brown hair that she pulled into a ponytail whenever they sparred together. Punch. What about the fact Heywood had three inches on her. Punch. Their height difference was just infuriating and she never was gonna stop teasing her about it. Punch. The way she would switch from English to Korean and back again and not even realize how amazing that was. Punch! And her singing voice, her singing gave Laurel chills no matter what song it was. Punch, punch! Her laugh was just the same. No it was even better! Punch, punch! When Heywood laughed it gave her the best feeling in the world. Punch, Punch! It was the most beautiful sound in the universe. Nothing could ever replace it. Punch, punch!

And it was all- Punch! Punch, Punch! PUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCH!

It was all too much.

Just too much.

Think about something else. Anything else. Anything but her.

Laurel threw off her combat gloves, wiped off her sweat with a towel, then made her way downstairs. Maybe she could distract herself by eating something? She figured she could at least try at this point.

"Good morning, Laurel."

Laurel practically jumped out of her skin when she rounded the corner and saw that Ava was already in the kitchen.

"Oh fu- oh um hey mom. You're up early? What time is it? I mean it's Saturday and usually you and Momma sleep in on Saturday so, wait... it's Saturday right?"

"It is 6:32 am on Saturday, October 6th 204-!"

"Um okay mom, chill with the play by play of our current timezone okay. I get it. I'm grounded. Stuck in this time till my community service is over. Geezzz, you don't have to rub it in."

"Very well dear. Would you like to eat breakfast together? I am preparing something special for you."

"Um, sure? If you want."

Laurel was super puzzled by the way her mother was acting. She was super stiff this morning. Like she was on auto pilot. What was more odd was that she was dressed in her pantsuit. Which she rarely ever wore anymore except when meeting with the Time Tribunal or helping out on timeline case.

Laurel began to dig her way into the fridge, "Are you meeting some of your time cop buddies today or like are you and mom doing some nostalgic role-playing thing? Cause if so I don't actually want to know about it. But like if you are please make sure to play your annoying music super loud okay. I don't need to hear you getting sweet with each other like ever."

"Sara is at the dojo. She is with a client this morning."

Laurel froze. Did she just... did her mom just call her momma Sara? She slowly pulled a jar of peanut butter out the fridge and turned around to look at her.

"Um? Are you and mom fighting?"

Ava pulled a cooking sheet out of the oven, not even looking up at her, "Your mother and I are fine, honey. Why do you ask?"

"Cause you rarely call her by her first name. And yesterday you both seemed fine so like, did you get into an argument about my situation or something?"

"Of course not, sweetie."

Laurel opened up the silverware drawer and grabbed a spoon. Something was off. Laurel felt her gut twist into a knot of uneasiness. Then she saw what her mom was pulling out of the oven and the pit in her stomach only grew.

"If nothing is wrong why are you making snickerdoodles at 6:30 something in the morning? You only bake them this early when you are upset or your mind is on something. Mom, seriously what is going on?"

"Nothing is going on. I made them for you. They are your favorite after all. I thought you might enjoy them since you will be stuck at home for the time being."

Laurel opened the jar of peanut butter. She swirled the spoon around for a bit. Her foot tapped as she watched her mom set the cookies on the cooling rack and turn off the oven. She couldn't hold it in any longer. She really needed her mom.

"Mom, I was wondering if we could maybe talk? It's about, well it's about me and um Heywood. I know I said nothing was going on between us but I, I really need your advice."

"Of course, kiddo. Ask me anything you need to."

Her throat tightened. Her fingers clenched against the jar. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A chill ran down her spine. All because of one word her mom had just said. "Kiddo?"

"Yes. Kiddo. Do you no longer like to be called that term of endearment?"

Laurel blinked. Once. Twice. And for a few moments just started at Ava. Afraid to look away.

"Hey mom... can you look at me for a second?"

Ava looked up. Her eyes looking straight into Laurel's as she took a huge spoonful of peanut butter into her mouth and immediately put it back into the jar.

"Yes dear?"

Laurel took a few moments to swallow the peanut butter. Silence settling uneasy between them. Tension set into Laurel as she leaned against the countertop.

"You know, I've always been an obnoxiously clever kid. Over the years I have found a lot of ways to intentionally annoy my parents. Years of practice you see. So I'm going to break down a few things for you, okay? My mom, Ava, absolutely hates when I eat directly out of the jar of peanut butter. Seriously it is one of her greatest pet peeves. She likes to call me by a lot of embarrassingly cutesy nicknames. Things like sweetie, honey and her little beam of sunshine when she wants to really irk me. But fun fact only my Momma, Sara, calls me kiddo. Interesting, right? So I'm going to give you one chance. Just one to answer me before things get ugly. Where are my moms and who the fuck are you?"

Next thing Laurel knew the person who most certainly was not her mother was diving across the countertop. She immediately defended herself. Starting by using a jar of peanut butter followed by a right hook to her opponent's face. She was going to thank her mom later for insisting on buying the organic peanut butter in a glass jar.

The imposter had recovered quickly, grabbing a kitchen knife as they began to square off with each other. Laurel had scooped up the closest item near her. A rolling pin that had been knocked off the counter at the initial struggle. Not the ideal weapon. Laurel would make it work.

"It is a shame that you discovered the truth so quickly. This means I must aquire or terminate you at this time. Stand down or perish."

"Not gonna happen. I'm going to take you down. You will tell me where my parents are."

"An unacceptable outcome."

How many times had she sparred with her moms. Countless times. Sometimes for hours at a time. They had drilled into her ways to fight. They taught her how to defend, attack, to adapt to all the things she might have to face. Except what was right in front of her. Someone trying to kill her. Someone who was wearing her mother's face.

Sweat trickled down her neck as she bobbed and weaved waiting on a opening to strike. The blade thunked against the wood of the pin as she blocked strike after strike. The sound of it sending trembles down her whole body as she backed her way into the living room to gain more open space. Tight in the kitchen her movements had been constricted. Now she could move freely and she took the opportunity to switch to the offensive.

Everything was fast. Her body and mind in sync with the furious thumping of her heart. Adrenaline pushed her forward as the knife dug deep into the rolling pin. Then she pulled it back, ripping the knife out the hand of her enemy giving her the full opening she needed. One jab to the chest followed by a roundhouse kick right to the face. That is how she should have won.

Pinning her down Laurel had grabbed her by the collar. Her other fist was raised to strike again. She had been ready to demand where her family was. She had been willing to do whatever it would take. Till she saw the necklace. It was a result from her first heist.  A jade frog she had spent actual time on to carve with the help of Axl for weeks. She had made three of them. One for herself, one for Sara and one for Ava. It wasn't supposed to be there. It shouldn't have been there. She had froze.

That's how she ended up on her back instead. Wheezing for breath as she looked into eyes that pretended to be ones she had known all her life. It didn't feel real yet it was happening. Her fingers grasping at hands closing around her throat. Her thrashing slowing down against her will.  The darkness seeping into her vision. Laurel was going to die. Her time had run out.

[aion-rsa]

10 Best Fighting Game Movies

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Once upon a time, Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly, and John Saxon visited a crime boss’ private island to compete in a fighting tournament and it was awesome. The 1973 movie Enter the Dragon is basically the prototype for the fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. And when those fighting games became popular, they inspired their own movies that either tried to emulate Enter the Dragon or do something completely new.

The ‘90s gave us the cheesy live-action fighting game movies from Hollywood and the animated movies from Japan. There have been several live-action Mortal Kombat movies as well as a few animated ones. There have also been multiple Street Fighter movies, four attempts at Tekken, a trilogy of Fatal Fury films, and more.

Are most of them bad? Yes. But did we pick our 10 favorite fighting game movies anyway? You bet. Here are our picks:

10. ART OF FIGHTING (1993)

Eh…it’s harmless.

The Art of Fighting series is mostly defined by the twist that the first game’s final boss is the main character’s father and the second game’s final boss is a younger incarnation of the villain from Fatal Fury. Take away those aspects and you’re left with a rather lowkey storyline for a fighting game where a teenage girl is kidnapped by a mobster and is rescued by her brother and her boyfriend.

Wait, I said that weird. It’s two different people, I swear! Except in Capcom, where Dan Hibiki is literally both of them merged into one character.

In the 45-minute Art of Fighting movie about Ryo and Robert, who are like chiller and dopier versions of Ryu and Ken, we watch as the duo gets sucked into a plot about stolen diamonds, martial arts criminals, and angry police lieutenants. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s a fine, breezy watch.

Ryo’s incorrect hair color kind of irks me, though.

9. STREET FIGHTER ALPHA: THE ANIMATION (1999)

This movie suffers from the same problem as Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture. It features a cast of heroes from a fighting game taking on a villain created for the movie instead of the villains we actually give a shit about. But the movie does also have some brief but awesome cameos (Kim Kaphwan and Geese Howard from Fatal Fury and Dan Hibiki and Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha) to brighten up a less-than-stellar plot.

Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation does at least get by because the original characters play up Ryu’s whole fear about being overcome by “the Dark Hadou.” This leads to some cool animations where Evil Ryu looks like a mindless, shambling zombie but also an unstoppable fighting machine.

The movie���s main storyline is about a kid named Shun who claims that he’s Ryu’s long-lost brother. He too is a fighter cursed with an inner dark side, which is used as a red herring to suggest that Shun’s father (and presumably Ryu’s father) is actually Akuma. That ends up being bupkis and Shun is just linked to some scheme by a mad scientist or whatever.

Probably the funniest thing about this movie is the directors’ infatuation with Chun-Li’s midsection. She’s wearing her form-fitting Street Fighter Alpha costume and there are dozens upon dozens of random close-ups to her lower torso from the front and back. If this were a drinking game, it would kill you.

8. FATAL FURY 2: THE NEW BATTLE (1993)

Of the Fatal Fury movie trilogy, this one is easily the best, even if it makes all the good guys seem like a bunch of overly-serious crybabies. The basic story is that after having avenged his father’s death, Terry hits rock bottom, dusts himself off, and comes out the other end stronger. Good, good. Going Rocky III is the perfect direction for a follow-up.

The problem is that Terry comes off as a bit of a whiner and the other heroes try way too hard to vilify the movie’s main antagonist, who hasn’t actually done anything that terrible. Krauser shows up one day, challenges Terry to a fight, wins, and says, “Okay, when you get better, train and fight me again.” Krauser isn’t trying to take over the world or murder orphans or whatever. He’s just a dude with huge shoulder armor who wants a good fight.

But everyone acts like Krauser’s the absolute worst. Terry starts drinking and falls to pieces while his buddies hope to get revenge. What a bunch of jerks.

While a fun romp, the worst thing about this sequel is how they redesigned Krauser. Gone is his mustache and forehead scar for the sake of making him seem younger. Kind of a bullshit move, considering he’s supposed to be the half-brother to middle-aged Geese Howard.

7. TEKKEN: THE MOTION PICTURE (1998)

This hour-long anime is almost great but just can’t stick the landing. It runs into the same problem as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation where the game series tells a specific overall story but the movie cuts corners to tell the same story. Tekken: The Motion Picture covers the first Tekken while setting up Tekken 3 and skipping Tekken 2 completely.

It means that everything’s well and good until the confusing and rushed finale. Otherwise, the movie is a fine use of the Enter the Dragon formula. Heihachi Mishima has a special island fighting tournament and the entrants include his vengeful son, a couple of cops investigating the situation, a gigantic robot, an angry Native American girl, two feuding assassin sisters, and a bunch of awesome characters who only get about three full frames of appearances each. Really would have liked to see something from Paul, King, and Yoshimitsu, though.

Other than Kazuya being pissed at everything, the best scenes are the over-the-top ones. When Jack does crazy robot stuff, when dinosaurs show up and start eating people, and that memorable sequence where Heihachi catches a hatchet with his mouth and then shatters it with his jaw.

6. STREET FIGHTER (1994)

I know this movie is just a GI Joe script with Street Fighter names pasted over it. I know it’s a cheesefest of dopey ideas and Belgian accents. I’ve long accepted that. Thing is, the movie is still a total blast to watch. What it lacks in faithfulness to the source material, it makes up for with pure camp and ham.

The 16 characters from Super Street Fighter II are represented here, except Fei Long is replaced with the forgettable Captain Sawada. How ironic that the movie star character isn’t even in the movie!

In general, the movie features some head-scratching depictions of classic Street Fighter characters. All-American Guile is played by Jean Claude Van Damme, Charlie Nash and Blanka are the same character, Dee Jay is an evil hacker, Ryu and Ken are comedic conmen, and Dhalsim is a frumpy scientist.

It’s Raul Julia’s M. Bison who keeps this guilty pleasure afloat. He’s to Street Fighter what Frank Langella’s Skeletor was to Masters of the Universe. He gives 110% and his performance is easily the best reason to watch this movie. It’s truly a wonder to behold.

Read more

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The Forgotten Fighting Games of the 1990s

By Gavin Jasper

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King of Fighters: Ranking All the Characters

By Gavin Jasper

The movie is infamous for inspiring a fighting game based on it, but you know what nobody ever talks about? The Double Dragon movie also had a fighting game based on it made by Technos and released on the Neo Geo. And Double Dragon wasn’t even a one-on-one fighter to begin with!

Anyway, if you intend to sit back and watch Street Fighter, make sure to add in the RiffTrax commentary.

5. DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (2006)

Enter the Dragon meets Charlie’s Angels is a heck of a concept, but DOA: Dead or Alive is so confidently tongue-in-cheek that it succeeds as an action comedy that’s way better than it has any right to be. Part of why it works is that Dead or Alive has never had much of an overarching storyline, but is more defined by the individual characters (plus, you know, all the cheesecake). Enough of those characters appear in what’s your regular “fighting tournament on a mysterious island” setup.

The whole thing moves with such energy that it’s easy to get sucked in. It’s the opposite of the live-action Tekken movie, where even though the film features accurate versions of all the characters, everything is so drab and lifeless that you just can’t wait for it to be over. In DOA, the combatants spend their downtime playing cartoony action volleyball with Fake Dennis Rodman on commentary, while in Tekken everyone mopes about dystopian capitalism.

Other than Helena’s character being “important dead guy’s daughter,” most of the main characters are charismatic enough to keep your attention during the 3% of the movie when fights aren’t happening. It must suck for Ninja Gaiden fans that Hayabusa is depicted as a total dweeb, but he at least gets to do some cool stuff here and there.

The movie also has Kevin Nash playing a character based on Hollywood Hogan and he’s so likeable that I’m genuinely bummed that he peaces out about halfway into the movie. Luckily, the movie is entertaining enough that I didn’t even notice until after it was over. It helps that during that time, we get more of Eric Roberts, his amazing hair, and his special sunglasses that turn him into the ultimate martial arts master.

Spoiler alert, but the secret to defeating him is, get this, removing his sunglasses!

4. MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SCORPION’S REVENGE (2020)

It took a while, but Warner Bros. Animation is on fire these days. After that Batman vs. TMNT movie and Teen Titans Go vs. Teen Titans, the studio appears to be hitting more than they miss. That’s exactly the kind of team needed to put together the latest animated Mortal Kombat movie.

This is the umpteenth retelling of the first game’s story. Not only does it have to compete with the first live-action movie, but also the events of Mortal Kombat 9, which depicts the tournament in cutscene format. Fortunately, Scorpion’s Revenge has a few tricks up its sleeve. First, it puts Scorpion in the forefront as the protagonist. He was barely a character in the original movie and the game just had him kill Sub-Zero and feel bad about it for the rest of the story mode. Now he feels like a character in a crossover, making a mark on the original story instead of being put in the sidelines.

We also have the wonderful stunt casting of Joel McHale as Johnny Cage. More importantly, Jennifer Carpenter plays Sonya Blade, which is such a step up from Ronda Rousey’s voice acting in Mortal Kombat 11.

This cartoon has a very hard R when it comes to violence. From the very beginning, Scorpion’s origins are gruesome and grisly. Once Jax is introduced, it doesn’t take long until we realize, “Oh, that’s how they’re dealing with THAT plot point in this continuity.” Then there’s a surprise villain death late in the movie that not only comes as a shocking development, but it’s so graphic and nasty that you can’t help but be taken aback.

Scorpion’s Revenge is a fantastic first chapter of what is hopefully a series of animated movies, but it does have its pacing issues. Scorpion being the protagonist may be a welcome change, but at times it does feel like a square peg being crammed into a round hole.

3. TEKKEN: BLOOD VENGEANCE (2011)

One of the best things about the Tekken series is the endings. While the cutscenes from the first couple games haven’t exactly aged well, these CGI epilogues have become a staple in nearly every installment. What better reward for your time and success than watching a rocking action sequence with Yoshimitsu and Bryan Fury killing each other in the jungle?

And so, to play to the series’ strengths, Bandai Entertainment released a Tekken movie that’s really just one big ending cutscene. It’s not canon, but it feels at home with the games.

Since Tekken’s main conflict is with two ruthless megalomaniacs (Heihachi and Kazuya) and a disgruntled nihilist (Jin), it’s hard to treat any of them as a real protagonist here. Instead, they go with Ling Xiaoyu, who is portrayed as the person who sees the good in Jin and wants him to see the light. She’s given a robotic BFF in Alisa Bosconovitch because Xiaoyu is kind of a tame character and needs someone with chainsaw arms and a jetpack to liven things up.

The first hour or so is good enough to keep your attention and its lightened up by a couple appearances by Tekken’s best character, Lee. But once it gets to the third act, it just becomes a completely awesome Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin fight, with Xiaoyu taking a backseat to watch all the crazy shit going on. It’s a full-on fireworks factory, as we not only see Devil forms of Kazuya and Jin but a very special final form for Heihachi that’s a true delight for Tekken fans.

2. STREET FIGHTER II: THE ANIMATED MOVIE (1994)

Let it be said that for someone who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, finding a faithful cartoon adaptation of a video game property was not easy. Link and Simon Belmont were unlikable sexual harassers. Mega Man was a more annoying sidekick than Scrappy Doo. Mario and Luigi teamed up with Milli Vanilli. Power Team was…a thing. When we got an animated movie based on Street Fighter II, it was mind-blowing. This was a movie where the very first scene was Ryu tearing Sagat’s chest into a bloody gash thanks to a well-animated Shoryuken.

There’s a lot going on in this movie, but at the same time, nothing is going on. By this point, there were 17 characters in the various Street Fighter II games, and outside of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Akuma cameo, it feels the need to include every single one of them. Some get minor roles, like Cammy and Dee Jay. Then there’s Zangief and Blanka, who fight each other for no reason other than for the sake of giving them something to do. Even Ryu vanishes for a huge chunk of the runtime.

Once everything funnels into the third act, this movie is great. And the earlier fight scenes are straight fire too, including the memorable Chun-Li vs. Vega brawl. Even though the movie already feels true to Street Fighter II, it’s even better when you realize that it’s all supposed to be a prequel to the game itself.

Or at least I hope so. Otherwise, all Sagat gets to do is get his ass kicked by Ryu and get chewed out by Bison.

1. MORTAL KOMBAT (1995)

The stars truly aligned for this one. Mortal Kombat Mania was at its peak, so it makes sense that this movie was a retelling of the first game’s story with added aspects from the second game, all while hyping up the arcade release of the third game. CGI was such a novelty in Hollywood in the ’90s that even if it looked primitive, it still looked cutting edge at the time. It was the perfect time to release this movie.

But Mortal Kombat isn’t perfect. Reptile is embarrassing. Scorpion and Sub-Zero being relegated to goons still stings. I still roll my eyes at the part towards the end where Sonya is suddenly the damsel in distress and Raiden flat-out verbally buries her by saying she couldn’t beat Shang Tsung in a million years. Otherwise, it’s the perfect storm of ‘90s action garbage.

There are so many over-the-top and charismatic performances here. Johnny Cage, Raiden, Shang Tsung, Kano, and even Goro are a blast to watch. All 10 characters from the original game are given something to do and, most importantly, they realize how uniquely weird the game’s story is and actually dive headfirst into it. The movie isn’t embarrassed to be a Mortal Kombat movie but handles itself well enough that we aren’t embarrassed to be watching a Mortal Kombat movie.

Even with a PG-13 rating, the movie was violent enough. Kano talked up seeing a pile of frozen guts in the wake of a Sub-Zero fight, Scorpion got his skull sliced apart with demon brain goo spewing all over the place, and Shang Tsung got impaled to death.

With the reboot being rated R, going for the gore could very well be the right route to go, but for the love of the Elder Gods, don’t forget to have FUN. All I’m saying is, if even Johnny Cage isn’t hamming it up, then what’s the point?

The post 10 Best Fighting Game Movies appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[richonnefics]

Richonne Reset #2 (Hometown) by SBK

Rick Grimes is now under Herschel’s care.  He is resting in a cell, his children by his side.  Beth was sure to get the young boy some water and food and she also made a bottle for the baby with the meager supplies the Grimes family still maintained. Their lack of formula worried Michonne and she knew she was going to have to go on a run if the baby was going to survive.

She drops her head in deep thought, realizing that the others may not be so willing to risk their lives for a stranger and his kids.  She watches quietly as Herschel checks his patient’s temperature once again. “How is he?”

“Clearly exhausted but I think he’ll be alright,” Herschel informs.  The older man lifts from the lower bunk and gives the children a warm smile. “I’ll have Beth bring you some blankets and something for your little sister to sleep in.  Holler if you need me.  I won’t be far away.”

Carl nods, certain that he should be grateful for the kindness of these strangers but uncertain of how long that kindness would last.  He looks anxiously at his sleeping father, willing him to get up and ensure they would be ok.  

Herschel and Michonne walk out of the cell, side by side, speaking softly.

“Do you think he’ll be able to travel any time soon?”  Michonne asks.

“Travel?  Travel where?”  Herschel returns.

Michonne looks away guiltily.  “Well we have to consider all options.  I brought him in but the others may not be ok with him staying indefinitely.”

“They’ll have to see reason. How can we turn this man out with two kids?”  Herschel wonders.

Michonne takes a deep breath but her worries melt away as soon as she spots a certain small person with a huge smile on his face running towards her.

“Mommy!”  Andre exclaims with excitement.  He is always so happy to see her.  His enthusiasm always brightens her day.

She bends at the waist, holding her arms wide to receive him.  “Hey Peanut!”  She lifts him up and gives him a sound kiss on the cheek.  “How was your nap?”

“Good and Beth gave me some crackers with peanut butter and jelly,” Andre reports.

“That sounds delicious,” Michonne answers.

“Are we going outside today?”

“Of course we are. We…..”  She trails off as she sees Glenn and T-Dog apparently waiting for her by the stairs.  She knows they want to talk about the stranger and she’d rather not put it off. She looks to Herschel who pats Andre on his back.  “I’ll see you later, baby.”

“Come on little one. Let’s go and see what Bethy’s up to. Then we’ll come back for your mom and take a walk outside.  How’s that?” Herschel suggests.

Andre nods and takes the older man’s hand after Michonne lowers him to the floor.  She watches as the two of them walk off before turning to Glenn and T-Dog.  She looks back towards the cell that holds the topic of their impending discussion, knowing she made the right decision because of the kids but unsure about their father.

The three of them move further away before Glenn states, “I don’t think we should allow him to stay here. We know nothing about him.  What if he’s with another group or something?”

“This is why we’ll have to interrogate him as soon as he wakes up,” Michonne offers.

“Could be too late by then. What if his people are surrounding this place right now?”  T-Dog asks.

Michonne sighs. “Maggie’s on watch.  Daryl and Carol are out on a run.  They should be back today.  I’m sure they’ll report anything suspicious.  Until we know more, let’s not make assumptions.”

“Well, all he had was a gun and a knife.  We searched him thoroughly but we’re gonna have to vote on this as a group,” Glenn states.

“We can vote but I’m not sending two defenseless kids out there to their death and if this man is any kind of father he won’t be separated from them,” Michonne reminds.

T-Dog opens his mouth but Michonne cuts him off.  “Let’s just see what he’s about when he wakes up.  We’ll get a better idea of who we’re dealing with.  We can make our decision then.  Meanwhile why don’t you keep watch over his cell?”

“Me?”  T-Dog points a hand at his chest.  “What happened to ‘it’s on me’?”

“Give me an hour with Andre and I’ll spell you.  Deal?”

“Deal.”

She looks to Glenn but he relays her directive before she can speak.  “Headed to the watch tower now.”

“Thank you.”

Two hours later, Michonne is seated in front of the cell where the stranger still sleeps.  She took the liberty of moving his slumbering kids to another cell.  It appears they were just as exhausted as their father.  

She watches him in the dim light that a few lit candles generate, wondering if he’ll ever wake up. She looks down towards the end of the cellblock, longing to be with her own child.  She promised to read a book tonight before he went to bed and she had to return to guard duty.

A slight moan draws her attention back to the cell and the man the noise emitted from.  “Are you awake?”

She is met with silence but she can see that his eyes have popped open and he is looking around anxiously. He sits up with a start and a groan. A hand goes to his head as he croaks, “Carl?  Judith?”

“They’re safe.”

His eyes zero in on her before he looks at his surroundings again.  “Where are my children?  Where am I?”

“I’ll be the one asking the questions.”

His head snaps back to her and he eyes her from head to toe.  She sits in a chair, comfortably, confidently, and for some reason that irks him. He works his jaw, trying to rein in his emotions.  He stands and walks over to the cell door, already guessing that it’s probably locked. “Where…..are…..my children?”

“I told you…..”

Rick doesn’t think. He acts.  He reaches out and snares her wrist, yanking her out of the chair and pulling her bodily against the steel bars.

Michonne gasps as she figures that she was either sitting too close or this man’s arm reach was longer than she could’ve anticipated.  She grabs his colt python from her back and aims it at his head. “Let go and step back.”

Rick obeys slowly as Michonne lets out a shaky breath.

“Don’t you ever touch me again,” she tells him.

He raises his hands in surrender.  “Just tell me where….”

She keeps the gun on him, angry that he would dare put his hands on her, angrier that he caught her off guard.  “How about we patch you up and send you on your way?”

He continues to stand in silence, not sure what to say.  He eventually gives her a slight nod and asks after his children once again.

“They’re sleeping.  I put them in a cell a couple of spaces down. And just to be clear…..I wouldn’t harm a child,” she confirms.

“I….I don’t….I don’t know you,” he returns.

“I understand but I did save your ass so I think a little gratitude isn’t too much to ask,” she explains.

He raises his eyes to hers, taking in the dark orbs and wonders if he can trust her or anybody at this point in his life.  “I…. thank you.  Can I see my kids now?”

“I need you to answer some questions first.”

“Like what?”

“Like where is that baby’s mother?”

She notices the change in him immediately.  His body tightens and the color in his eyes dims as they start to glisten in the meager light.  She averts her gaze from his, dropping the gun to her side, and inwardly berates herself as she realizes the loss this man must have suffered.  A loss especially similar to her own.

“I’m sorry.  I….”

“Just take me to my children.  We’ll be out of your hair in the morning.”

“Wait a minute.  I….”

He steps to the bars, grabbing them with both hands.  “Let me out of here!”

Michonne tilts her head in aggravation.  “Get some more sleep Rick Grimes.  Maybe you’ll be in a better mood in the morning.”

He watches as she places his gun at her back and disappears with a slow deliberate gait.  How the hell does she know my name?

XXXXXXXXXX

Michonne finds her son nestled in the bottom bunk, ready for bed but wide awake going back and forth with Beth.  The latter is on the top bunk, thumbing through a magazine with a flashlight while carrying on the conversation.

“What’s the fuss about?” Michonne asks on entrance.

“Beth says I can’t see the baby just yet and I wanna know why,” Andre explains.

Michonne smiles, her son’s curiosity always a sense of delight….mostly.  “Well, the baby’s sleeping right now but you’ll get a chance to see her.  We have to be very careful around her.  She’s really little remember?”

“See I told you.  You better start believing what I tell you,” Beth warns the younger one.

He sticks his tongue out at her and Michonne gives him a warning with a pointed finger.  She is unsure why he treats Beth like a big sister rather than an authoritative adult.

“You ready for your bedtime story?”  She asks. With his nod, she selects one of the books they’ve been able to procure since arriving at the prison, sits at the foot of his narrow bunk, and begins to read.  She smiles as Beth doesn’t make a move to exit, clearly enjoying story time as well.

They are soon interrupted by a cry, a noise they thought they’d never hear again.  The baby is awake and most likely hungry.

Michonne, Beth, and Andre make their way to the cell where Carl and Judith are housed, watching as the boy takes his little sister into his arms to comfort her.  T-Dog and Herschel join them, just as amazed as the others.  Michonne offers to prepare another bottle, realizing they’d have to go out as soon as tomorrow in order to find more formula.

The next morning brings the return of Daryl and Carol and more provisions for the prison.  Of course, that doesn’t solve their dilemma of allowing a stranger into their midst nor the lack of formula for the stranger’s infant.

Michonne looks at the gazes from the others, some accusatory, some questioning, one understanding.  T-Dog relieved her for guard duty so she is now meeting with Daryl, Carol, Herschel, Beth, Maggie, and Glenn.  “I can’t turn him away.  Not with two kids.”

“So what are we going to do with him then?  Invite him to stay?”  Carol wonders.

“The first order of the day is a run for formula. The baby can’t survive without it.  I’ll take him out and see what he’s about,” Michonne explains.

“Alone?”  Maggie gasps.  “No way.”

“I can handle myself,” Michonne returns.

“Maggie’s right.  You shouldn’t go alone,” Glenn offers.

“He won’t hurt me.  He has to get back here to his kids, so we’ll be fine,” Michonne explains.

“Are you sure he’s up for this?”  Herschel asks.

“It’s for his kid.  He better be,” Maggie answers.  “You’ve got two hours max.  If you’re not back, we’ll come looking.”

Daryl walks to the cell housing the stranger.  The guy is wide awake and pacing the cell floor.  “Hey.  Pack your shit.  You’re going on a run.”

“What about my kids?” Rick asks anxiously but Daryl ignores him and walks away.

Rick stands at the cell door, looking for the woman from yesterday.  He just wants to ensure that his kids are ok.  He can’t express his relief when she comes into his viewing range and steps up to his cell door.

“Your daughter needs formula so we’re going to get it for her,” she relays.

He remains silent as she unlocks the door, opens it, and gestures for him to step out.

“Try anything and I’ll end you.”

He takes in her petite physique but doesn’t doubt a word that comes out of her smooth lips.  He gives her a slight nod and follows her to another cell.  He smiles when he sees Carl and Judith looking well rested and happy.

Michonne steps aside as the father enters the cell and hugs his children tightly.  “We leave in 10 minutes.”  

“Leave?  Dad where are you going?”  Carl asks anxiously.

Rick wants to resist, the thought of leaving his children with strangers not putting his mind at ease at all.  He realizes that his kids are safe compared to what they endured out there and he’d do anything to keep it that way.  He gives Carl a slight explanation and asks him to watch after his sister.  “I’ll be back as soon as I can son.  I promise.”

XXXXXXXXXX

The compact SUV rolls out of the prison gates slowly as Rick drives and Michonne sits in the passenger seat. The silence in the car is deafening but Michonne prefers it that way and it would seem her companion does too.

They hit two stores with no luck and Michonne realizes they will have to go further out.  This wasn’t part of the plan but what else can they do?

Rick clears his throat. “I’d like to make a suggestion.”

“Please.”

“My hometown isn’t far from here.  My w….um…. there’s a baby store.  Maybe it wasn’t hit as hard,” he offers.

Michonne’s first reaction is skepticism but she reminds herself that this man’s children are at stake and he would not do anything to harm her because that would be risking them. She gives him a nod and out of precaution remains extra attentive.

He parks the car near a small plaza and Michonne returns his gun to him yet again.  She wasn’t fully comfortable with that, but she also knew he couldn’t be out there unarmed.  She watches as he checks his ammo once again. Luckily, the gun hadn’t been fired since he arrived at the prison but it’s clear he checks out of habit.

“Might need to check a couple of places for ammo if that’s ok,” he states.

She gives a nod as they both continue to peruse their surroundings.  “This place far?”

“Just down that sidewalk. You ready?”

“Let’s go.”

Several minutes later, she is witnessing the first genuine smile from Rick Grimes.  They found plenty of formula for his daughter as there was a stockpile in the rear storage room.

She looks around curiously. “Let’s get one of those bassinets or a play pen.  She needs something to sleep in.”

The two of them share a look but remain silent.  No verbal agreement is needed as they work together to gather the items the baby would need.  They are now at the car, loading everything up.

“We got time to see about some guns and ammo?” Rick asks.

“I really don’t think that’s needed, but….” Michonne trails off as Rick inputs, “That’s always needed nowadays.”

She chooses not to argue as he probably makes a valid point.  They hit a bar and a restaurant where Rick knows exactly where to find a weapon.  She looks at him curiously and he feels obligated to explain.

“I was a deputy sheriff. Business owners needed protection and I was the one to sign the permits.  We should probably check the sheriff’s station.  Last time I was there, the gun cage was still full.”

“Ok but we should be getting back.  Judith didn’t have much formula left.”

They walk out of the restaurant and start the short trek to the car.  The noise of a rifle being cocked ricochets through the still air. Rick and Michonne look around anxiously and race up to the nearest building for cover.

A masked man rounds the same building and aims his weapon at them.  “Well I’ll be damned.  That you Rick?”

Rick frowns as he keeps his eyes and gun on the masked man.  “Who….”  He gasps as the man removes the mask.  “Shane?”

[franeridart]

Bakugou with that undercut is everything. I'm absolutely in love with your art!!

!!!!!!! thank you SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:SORRY BUT…. ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE MORE OF THAT VIGILANTES AU???? THAT CLIFFHANGER

I wouldn’t really call it a cliffhanger tbh lol but yah, sure, someday, as soon as I feel like it again

Anon said:We want seme kirishima and uke bakugou

Then I’m really sorry to let you know that you’re on the wrong blog

Anon said:Do you still ship BakuKami?

Yah

Anon said:Your page is glorious, I await every update you have impatiently but it’s worth it every time. Keep up the absolutely stunning work. And would it be possible to ask for a Ferris wheel date (kiribaku), if not all is good.

Thank you so much! And I dunno, you’re asking for a pretty complex thing there (and I’m not a huge fan of ferris wheels myself so there’s that) - but, sure, if I find myself with the motivation for it why not? It’d make for something pretty scenic, if I could manage to find the strength to put in it all the effort it’d need!

Anon said:Literally I just wanna day ur probably my fav BNHA artist.,,.,, especially kiribaku.,,.. they way you draw them is so cute and wholesome ;-; thank you for my life..,..,,,

Nuh thank YOU for being so kind to me!!!!

Anon said:i miss ur bokuroo art so much. i get it u are more into bakushima and bnha now but do u think u will still draw for hq? love ur art either way

Thank you!!! And maybe? Depends a lot on inspiration, ngl

Anon said:Hey! I was wondering when are you gonna draw the kids again ? I just saw your posts about them and I love them already aha

I’m glad you like them!!! And I’ve been answering “soon” to this question for a while now but I still haven’t gotten around to it, so who knows? I’ve especially been itching to draw Baku and Tai lately ngl………..I wonder when that’ll happen

Anon said:Your art style is really amazing and I love it! Your Kiribaku content gives me life ❤️❤️❤️

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;O;

Anon said:Fran, I have the KiriBaku suit art as my phone wallpaper and show it off to everyone. Is so beautiful and it makes me cry whenever I see it. You’ve drawn their faces and expressions so perfectly in that that it makes my heart ache every single time I unlock my phone. I just wanted to drop by and tell you how much I love it and appreciate you for drawing for this fandom.

GODS I’m happy to hear you liked it that much!!!!!! Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TTOTT

Anon said:Your art of todoroki is so cool! His hair looks so fluffy!

Thank you so much!!! His hair is a lot of fun to draw!!

Anon said:I Fucking LOVE your art ! Honestly, you are the person who have me get back on tumblr. Your Kiribaku gives me life ! But I am too shy to say it with my account.

HECK THANK YOU!!!!!!

Anon said:hello!! i know reposts are not allowed under any circumstances, but i was wondering if that was limited to video edits? i really love your art and was going to make an amv with it but of course since you don’t allow reposts id be best to ask before doing so

Nah videos are cool as long as you link back to every post with the pieces you used for it 👍

Anon said:Are Bakugo or Kirishima or both the jealous type?

I headcanon them both as the reasonably-jealous type, I’d say - not an unhealthy amount of it, but still jealous now and again. It’s born mostly from the fact that I hc them as not necessarily being popular to the point of having people often hit on them? The general status-quo is that the only person actively interested in Bakugou is Kirishima and the only person actively interested in Kirishima is Bakugou, so usually they’re pretty chill about jealousy and stuff because they don’t have to be jealous. It does mean that it’s all the more irking to them when someone shows interest in the other, since they’re not used to feeling “threatened” like that, but they tell each other how much they love each other often enough that they don’t really have any reason to be worried anyway.

It’s like, yeah they don’t like it when people get touchy with thir bf, but they trust each other enough to not be actually worried about it. To be honest with you aside from very specific scenarios more than jealous/possessive I prefer my krbks as the protective sort 💕

Anon said:If Kirishima and Bakugo got into a huge fight what do you think it would be about?

I don’t… actually think they would fight? For them to get in a serious fight it’d take either a serious misunderstanding of sort or a situation in which both of them are stressed for other reasons and it comes all out with them taking it out on each other. Aside from that, the most probable thing I can see them fighting over is anger fueled by worry for each other’s well being tbh - Kirishima doing something extremely risky and Bakugou turning his fear and worry into anger, and Kirishima being angry right back because they’re heroes, Bakugou can’t be angry at him for acting as an hero should, and Bakugou’s anger getting even worse because Kirishima isn’t valuing his life as much as Bakugou values it, for example. Or Kirishima being worried about Bakugou and for one reason or another pushing it too far and having Bakugou get on the defensive as he does and it all just turning into a fight of “I don’t need you treating me like I can’t take care of myself” and “why must you always be so uselessly stubborn” and so on.

But all of these wouldn’t actually be about them being angry with each other, it’s all stuff that comes from love? From them loving each other so much that their care can turn into something ugly too, that is. At least, that’s the way I see it

Anon said:After seeing the asks abt the nsfw, may I ask why? I totally understand and respect your choice, I just want to know why would you never draw it? It’d be very interesting to see!

There are actually a lot of reasons why, tbh, but the most practical and obvious one is that as things stand right now in fandoms posting nsfw content is exactly the same as lighting up a very huge arrow pointing straight at you and yelling “please be an ass to me”, and that’s absolutely not what I want my fandom experience to be like, considering I already have enough of that without adding posting nsfw to the mix

Anon said:Can I ask if you like uraraka? Mostly bc you said she was reduced to her romantic supplot, and I wanna know your opinion of her (sorry if I worded this wrong)

Hm, what a question. Overall, I’m pretty indifferent to Uraraka as a whole? I like her design and she’s fun to draw because she’s easy to draw, so that’s part of it. I’m incrdibly unhappy with how Horikoshi is writing her, because he’s given her a lot of potentially very cool traits just to make literally nothing of any of them, and that’s just disappointing. As she is in the manga right now, whether she’s there or not doesn’t change anything for me because A, she’s barely there ever anyway and B, she doesn’t really have any sort of relationship with my faves so my attention doesn’t gravitate much towards her all in all. She’s said a couple of things in the past I’m not much happy about, but I realize they were mostly things said to move along the plot so I made peace with it. I’m not much of a fan of her fanon characterization? So I generally prefer it if she isn’t part of the fancontent I cosume, but that’s on the fandom and not on Horikoshi. 

All in all, lots of wasted potential, but she’s cute I guess? She hasn’t done anything worth notice since the sports fest lbr so I’m very ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about her as a whole

Anon said:i loev your art. have a brilliant day.

Thank you!!! I hope you have a fantastic day too!!!!

[ruwithmeguys]

The chances of an eighth season of Arrow is high, but beyond that… I think the chances have dropped for more than 8 but I could be wrong.

Why I think it’s ending after S8 (and why it may not):

Both Stephen and Emily have stated they want to write and direct but haven’t, despite the chances. They may want to work on new things after next year.

Though he’s agreed to an eighth season, Stephen has made several comments the last 12 months indicating his acceptance of the end and how Oliver really only has one true goal left to accomplish.

The show doesn’t just feel like it’s hitting a new milestone: it feels like it’s preparing us for something (unless it’s just a shocking SL and I’m very wrong)

The interest in superhero tv shows is starting to dwindle because of the sheer number of options available. This however, is open to change. Especially after the last avengers movie hits the cinemas. They may turn to shows like Arrow as an alternative.

Unless the show comes up with a brand new focus to pit Oliver against, beyond his own darkness, then… what? What’s the story?

Indications that John may become the GL means he’s available for other shows after Arrow ends.

Where Oliver goes, Felicity goes. The indications that Oliver will eventually step back from the hood keep ramping up.

They are leading the show towards the future: it’s an obvious passing of the baton.

They are limited in terms of comic origin as there’s only so much story they can pilfer from the comics before DC stop them.

They will need an intense, captivating original story to keep Stephen/Emily and the audience on board past S8 and where they go, the audience go.

We know Arrow won’t live past 10 seasons anyway.

Why I want Arrow to end after 8 seasons:

Too many new characters – unless the show axes at least two of the regulars, we’re never truly going to get the depth we deserve in the scenes focused on our mains… HOWEVER. You can also argue that they don’t need more depth because we basically know them inside out. Another reason right there.

Run its course - Arrow is that show. It isn’t even that good to be honest – the script is either amaze-balls or ridiculous and illogical, the action sequences take up too much space at times and continuity is a huge issue – however we love it as if it were made of gold. Despite our complaints, we watch it because it gave us something that most shows don’t. It gave us a love story for the ages that wasn’t supposed to exist and demanded acceptance of it. It dared so it has our respect.

However, Stephen said something recently. He said, all that remains of Oliver’s story is to leave a legacy. He doesn’t have to die for it to happen, but it has to happen. There two ways for this to be possible: have a baby with Felicity and become a legend. He’ll do both, huzzah! But, barring the immediate concerns of this story, there isn’t a whole lot of character building left to accomplish (suck it Barry/Kara) for Oliver. It’s all outside material. His sister is an issue too, but after this season, focus on him for her story won’t be required. I’m here for Oliver, then Felicity. Just them and in that order.

Thea’s story is done folks, save the peripheral. Whatever happens next for her doesn’t have to be on screen, though I will be stunned if she doesn’t come back for the finale of the series. I have no wish to see more of it, unless it’s Roy inclusive. Why? Because so much of her story kind of… IT BLEW, OKAY? I was bored to tears with her after season 4 and only season 2 and 3 interested me for her character and Roy was entwined in that.

Building a legacy doesn’t mean characters just… disappear - and they don’t have to. So regardless of the end, Felicity will be out there. So will Oliver.

Diggle. This is a big one for me. He’s been changing since Oliver and Felicity left 3.23, since he killed Andy. But we haven’t seen the Dig we know and love since 5.23. That’s 32 episodes. For me, if what was broken isn’t fixed by 7.22, then I truly won’t care what occurs for him in the future, beyond simple curiosity. There’s been too much damage. There’s changing into a different person and then there’s being likeable. One episode is all I’m asking. Believe it or not, I’m actually enjoying his progression, but it’s progression that falls away from the man we dearly miss. Since the chances of him becoming the green lantern has risen… I have to say, I’m not surprised at the idea that John could leave his family behind both literally and figuratively. He’s done it before. He’s doing it now, but it has less impact if his ties are loose and not taut. I need them tightening. 13 episodes are left on S7. He needs to take steps. So either Dig becomes the green lantern… or he dies. If either occurs next year, then S8 will most likely be the end anyway. OTA are the main fixture: they know it, they’ve said it. Once one of them leaves, it’s a ticking clock.

The longer the show lasts, the more time they have to screw up.

I can’t stand another crossover where Oliver is verbally battered for existing.

Too many birds give me hives.

Dinah has become the new boring and siren, the cordelia: I can live without both.

Curits is such a poor example of a human being, it makes me rage, which is unhealthy

Rene is finally interesting to me again, even if I don’t trust him because he’s a fickle sod… which means I never will. So, I can’t like his storyline.

I’m so done with watching Felicity be friendless and treated with disrespect by people that she has to refer to as heroes whether they’ve earned the title or not, I feel like writing fiction where she kills them all and Oliver just stands there in approval.

The longer Arrow lasts, the longer Flash lasts and… NO.

The longer Arrow lasts, the longer Supergirl lasts and… NO.

Since they aren’t doing a thorough Constantine Drakon villain – an enemy with the potential to be amazing since he very literally crucifies the green arrow – I really do miss the big villain. I miss Malcolm: he was twisted but he was effective. You were supposed to hate him. I miss Slade: he’s still my favourite villain. Adrian was the best but they took too long introducing him so he falls short of the tension pedestal for me. Despite being sucktastic, Diaz presents a decent conundrum: he’s supposed to be an arsehole that won’t die so he’s a constant threat. We don’t have to like him. So I desperately need Stan to return. I need that creepy/psychotic enemy that throws everyone for a loop. Without it, I’m not sure about the show’s moral integrity goes to that isn’t about revisiting old ghosts since it’s based on good Vs evil etc. I need to wait and see where they go with this: it could become an organisation or an idea (vigilantes for the people: who watches the watchman type thing) instead of a person and I’ve given up hope on a woman villain who doesn’t irk me. I don’t need 1950’s cheese ball KC: it’s not effective.

Felicity. Now… I love what they’ve done with her character, even in S6 for the most part! However, this whole idea that her wearing a mask would undermine the meaning is pathetic. You had a street kid and a lawyer wearing one after less than a few months of training, but sure: Felicity wearing one would destroy the significance. Now, in one part, this elevates her character: she is the character that all others must work off at least once. It makes her too important to loose: Oliver, Barry, LL, Siren, Ray etc. On the other hand, it limits her capacity and keeps her boxed in which is why S7 has been such a relief to may of us. But I would have loved to have seen this woman suit up: at least she’d be convincing. Any chance of us seeing it happen now are slim to none which is a shame because, to me, her potential is limitless. What we would have given to have everyone else react to her kicking ass and taking names in a mask, with a moniker, and a headset/vice that details the logistics of buildings, sends out Trojans etc. She’d be a nightmare.

I think one more full season (20 to 22 episodes) on top of the 13 remaining, is enough to close Oliver’s legacy if done right which… is a stretch to hope for.

With so many superhero movies in play, if gone on long enough, Arrow will no doubt attempt to copy them as they have done in the past to ill effect.

Another year of rude anons/haters making claims, demanding I do as they tell me, being ridiculous and being constantly wrong in my inbox would be a welcome subtraction in my life.

…And why I want it to live forever:

This show was the show that made me aware of social media. It’s also the show that I needed at a dark time in my life: I was jobless, friendless and things were happening with my family that were less than desirable: it was a grand distraction that borderlined obsession. Or passion. Hm.

Despite certain plotlines, illogical character progression, overused devices, and faulty scripts; it truly is a one in a million show. Very different from all other shows.

The actors can ACT… for the most part.

The CGI effects are good.

It’s angsty x 10

The love story is worth the angst

There’s always more story to tell with good characters!

Once Oliver achieves the status he deserves, I want to see him revel in it.

…A 10 episode season 9 that focuses on olicity alone because I want it so bad?

The chance to bring back Tommy somehow

The wonderful people I talk to online daily JUST because of this show

The genuine friends I’ve made JUST because of this show.

The fanfiction that will continue longer if the show does

The posts and metas I don’t want to live without

The asks in my inbox that I enjoy answering and the anons I enjoy engaging with

TUMBLR – (with the smut please)

If the show has a chance of lasting past season 8, then what I want to see is a season that focuses ONLY on Oliver… and I’d have it elsewhere. I’d have the government involved. Felicity too. Dig. Just them three (it won’t happen).

The chance to see Curtis crash and burn

The chance to see Dinah crash and burn

The chance to see Rene crash and burn

The chance to see siren… go away somewhere

Felicity in a mask

An actual 9pm slot that’s used to it’s fullest extent

A crossover that focuses on what could have been on another earth and you KNOW they’d have Felicity be the vigilante, with Oliver as the guy who loves her despite her violent escapades. OR another life where they’re regular people that fall into an elaborate conspiracy or something.

There currently isn’t another show that can fill the void that Arrow will create when it ends.

A crossover where Oliver/Felicity kiss no one but each other… please.

A crossover- nay, an ENTIRE SEASON, where Oliver is praised for alllll his hard work and sacrifice.

An episode that marks Felicity, truly, as irreplaceable, necessary and needed for every other character to shine.

An episode arc that allows Felicity to be the one that defeats the bad guy.

You know… YOU KNOW that at some point they’ll deliberately have DC and marvel intersect.

Unfortunately, the cons currently outweigh the pro’s. And if so, if S8 is the last, then that’s an AMAZING run time for a show that was supposed to be only 5 seasons. And the story had enough meat in it for me to be happy for it……… though when that occurs, I’ll probably need to book time off to recover because oh my god I can’t even imagine.

The idea, if true, is a sad one. But again, if true, it won’t be till 2020. We have some time.

[i-see-london-i-see-klance]

Voltron Season 8 - Overall Thoughts and Reactions

Okay so let’s break this down a bit. Into the good, the bad, and the eh???

The Good:

I love that this season took the time to give us some character moments. Moments when it was just people talking about their feelings or just spending time being people. At points it was clunky, but even then I appreciated that they took the time to actually let us see the characters, not just the plot.

The Allurance romance was also really organic to me. It wasn’t in your face, but it wasn’t brushed off once they’d hooked up either. The show gave them moments together, but didn’t make it a major focus. I also loved that, yeah, they loved each other, but it wasn’t one of those true love, destined to be together romances. They loved each other like normal people did. And so when Allura...became one with the big bang(?), Lance was sad, yes. But he wasn’t emotionally destroyed. He was able to move on, which is totally realistic for a relationship that new. Just, slow clap for the writers on that one

Honerva. God, Honerva. She was just amazing. I don’t think the series did a very good job as setting her up as the ultimate Big Bad; she was kind of on the sidelines and in the shadows too much for it to feel completely organic that she kind of took over at the end, but GOD the season worked her up beautifully...well, up until they castrated her character right at the end, but I’m choosing to focus on the good. She was ruthless, she was powerful, she was badass. And her motivation was so refreshing. She was evil, but her drive was love of her family, and my god I loved that. She was amazing this entire season. I ADORED what they did with her.

The character cameos were incredible. I don’t remember that many new characters, if any, getting added, which makes sense because there’s no point in introducing us to new people and expecting us to care about them at this point. The cameos were mostly well used, and I loved how many old characters they managed to cram back in. Most shows make their characters a one off and the fact that Voltron doesn’t was something I loved about this show in general, not just this season. It was sweet to see so many familiar faces.

While I was NOT a fan of the last 2-3 episodes, the last 5-10 min of the final ep actually managed to be really touching and sweet, and I thought it was well done. Allura’s sacrifice kind of came out of nowhere, but at the same time it made sense. She’d been showing off all these fancy quintescence powers since the first season, when it became clear that it was going to require fancy quintescence powers to save the day it’s perfectly logical that she’s the one to do it. And having her have to sacrifice herself to save everything feels more realistic after the extent of the damage that was done rather than have her and Honerva just fix everything and then carry on like nothing happened. It makes her seem less overpowered, even though SHE AND HONERVA ARE TOTALLY GODDESSES YO. And then I’ve always been a sucker for those “where are they now” type endings where we can get a brief bit of final closure when the show doesn’t really have time to spend on the aftermath. And the end results seemed very fitting and in-character for the team, unlike some “where are they now” segments I could mention (*coughDIGIMONcough*)

The Bad:

Ugh so many things

The writing felt all over the place this season, and a lot of details were handwaved or really badly explained. I don’t need an in-depth explanation for everything that’s happening, but too many times the answer the show gave for things happening was “Whoa that’s weird but hey moving on!” and it felt really lazy to me. Worse is there were a few times where they actually acknowledged the gaping plot holes and then never explained them (i.e. Earth’s defenses, Voltron and the Atlas fusing) which just draws more attention to the poor writing. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there had been a precedent for this kind of thing throughout the show, but the only example I can think of where some random superpower shows up out of the blue without explanation was when the Atlas turned into a giant mecha the first time, and it pissed me off just as much then. I get that this is the final season. I get that the stakes have to be raised because this is the climax of the entire show. But if you’ve upped the danger so high that the only way you can make the heroes believably triumph is by giving them random new powers, you have done a really shitty job of writing your climax.

Bringing back the original paladins. Don’t get me wrong, I love the characters, and any extra screen time for Alfor and OG!Zarkon brings me so much joy. But the entire segment felt really unnecessary and out of nowhere. These characters had already gotten their arcs, we already had closure when it came to them. Sure, it was sad. They all kind of died. But there was no need to bring them back. They were really dead and gone. Not to mention having them interact with the new paladins just made it more obvious that they were supposed to mirror the original team, where Lance piloted Blue, Keith Red, and Shiro Black. Blaytz and Allura had pretty much nothing to do with each other, they weren’t foils to each other’s characters, and their interaction was just kind of weird. And while Alfor chatting up Lance was kind of cute in the “meet the parents” kind of way, once again the personalities don’t match. It was awkward and out of place and overall those episodes felt really meaningless and forgettable

A lot of Allura’s actions this season kind of bugged me as well. She did something risky and stupid, starting doing questionable things, and then in the end she essentially faced no actual consequences for these actions. I mean, sure, in the end she kind of DIED, but that wasn’t related to her mistakes so I don’t think that counts.

The meh:

The fanservice. I’m kind of torn on this one because while it’s nice that the show took the time to add in little extras to please the fans who have been with this show all along, a lot of it was really blatantly fanservice. Lance’s altean markings come to mind as an example. They just appear, they never get explained or acknowledged or have any reason to exist or impact on the story. He’s just got altean markings now. And the only reason I can conceive why they added that in was for the fanservice.

The season’s treatment of Coran really irked me too. It was really inconsistent with how it treated his relationship with Allura, sometimes making it very clear that he’s her closest remaining thing to family, and other times ignoring that connection completely. I THINK what they may have unintentionally implied based on when and who was showing the emotions was that Coran cares a lot more about Allura (acting as her guardian when Lance asks her out, weeping in the flashback when Alfor asks Coran to stay by her side) than Allura cares about him (telling Lance on their date that she has no family left at all), which, yeesh. As if I didn’t already have problems with Allura’s writing this season

The lions were a mixed bag this season. I can’t say they had personalities anymore, and I suppose they haven’t for a long, long time but at least they had a few moments here and there where they were acknowledged to be their own characters, rather than just machines. It just wasn’t enough. Remember when Red was actually finicky and temperamental? Remember when the Black Lion actually seemed to care about her paladin? Remember when Blue had sass? The show clearly doesn’t

Overall, did I think this was a good season? Yeah, I’d say it was decent. Not the best by far, but also definitely not the worst. And considering the path the show has taken over the last few seasons, I think we got an ending that was as satisfying as we could expect. It didn’t blow me out of the water, it didn’t change the world, but it met my (admittedly low) expectations. It’s over and I walked away being okay with how it ended, rather than disappointed or frustrated. I’m sure I’m one of many people who will say that the show definitely started out way stronger than it finished, and that it never quite lived up to the potential of the first few seasons, but at least I can say I saw it through, and I did enjoy at least seeing how it ended. But I’m also really glad it’s over, because I think it was starting to wear itself out, and that’s why the quality slipped. It got too big and epic, and it needed to end before it turned into Supernatural, where there’s always got to be a bigger threat. I don’t know if I think the good of the final season outweighed the bad or vice versa; while I think there were more little things and moments that made me happy this season, the problems I had with it were pretty huge. And they REALLY ticked me off. But it’s probably close enough that I can say they balance each other out.

I guess I’ll just say that while I’m kind of sad it’s over, and I wasn’t entirely thrilled with how the series progressed, I’m still happy I watched it and I got to be a part of this fandom and phenomena. Someday I might watch the whole series again, for nostalgia’s sake.

But I also might just stick to the beginning, when all we had was a small team of misfits, and a universe of possibilities :)

[iceamericanoventi]

Love Will Find a Way, Well, Eventually : 2. In Between

“Where are you going?”

If it was inside Cartoon Network’s universe, everyone must be able to see the smoke fuming from both his nostrils and ears. Jinki looks beyond distressed when he’s lifting his ass from the chair. No one on the table was his partner, but Minho decided to throw some ridiculous question then played dumb as if he didn’t just ask one.

“Should I have number one here?”

He started getting irked, but that doesn’t stay long until Kibum casually munched his breadstick while spluttering his witty comments as usual, “Surely Taemin would be delightful.”

Taemin who didn’t do anything almost chocked himself with a piece of tomato and kicked Kibum’s shin under the table, eventually.

“Promise me you won’t run away?”

Dumbfounded, Jinki emptied his pocket and almost smashed the table with his belonging.

“Are you my husband? Here’s my wallet. And my phone!” and with that, he left the other three men finishing their meal.

“Is he always in this temper?”

Lee Taemin gave him another look, pleading him not to embarrass them further, but Kibum just shrugged and muttered ‘I’m just asking’ under his nose.

“He was mad with me since this afternoon. Plus, he has lots of stuffs to think about these days. But don’t worry, he never really got mad unless you disturb his nap.”

“What is he? A bear?”

“Yaa! Kim Kibum!”

Minho couldn’t help but laugh to the scene happened before his eyes. Taemin is famous for being friendly and very expressive only if you know him, even if he’s talkative. To penetrate his bubble is very hard at first, but this man sitting across him, he seems like he’s already inside that bubble since the very beginning. He really is someone closed to him. Kibum looks mesmerizing, even in his grumbling nature. The oversize sweater wrapped his lithe build perfectly.

A phone call arrived to Kibum's phone, he picked it up frantically and excused himself to take it outside.

"What do you think?"

“Eh?” Minho doesn’t even realized he got his eyes entailed Kibum’s silhouette until it disappear by the entrance door.

“You seemed in trance. I know Kibum is beautiful but I didn’t expect you’ll be this amazed with my friend,” Taemin’s sipping his wine, a smirk is very apparent in his devious face. 

“I guess it’s safe to say that you’re not a liar.”

Minho reopened his mouth few minutes after he’s assured that Kibum’s not going back any soon. Taemin is not ecstatic, sometimes he wondered if Minho has a decent sense of humor of a friend.

“For your information, I’m not and never been. I’m the most honest person you’ve ever encountered in your life.”

“Everyone in this room knows that’s not true.”

“Whatever. I might know my ways deceiving people, but I never lie to my friend.”

 “Did you just admit that you’re lying here and there, Lee Taemin?”

Taemin rolls his eyes, again, probably for the nth times already this evening. Without Jinki around, he can be more relaxed on throwing his tantrum on Minho.

“Choi Minho, people lies at some certain points of their life. Get over it.”

He gulped down the rest of his wine, Taemin then called a waiter near them to bring him another one.

“Kibum seems nice. He sounds smart.”

“Sounds? Did you even listen to yourself? No writer is not smart, Choi. Moreover, someone who’s been writing the past decade!”

“I only know him for one night. Who knows he’s just acting?”

“Dude, not everyone is an asshole like you.”

“An asshole wouldn’t agree to bring his best friend along in front of a psychopath like you.”

Taemin snorted and Minho’s smirk reappeared on his face.

“That is literally what a psycho would do, selling their friend for their own benefits.”

Minho wiped his mouth before washed down the dinner with cold water, “And that’s exactly what Jinki accused me for. You two shared a brain or what?”

“Any sane people would say the same, Honey,” this time Taemin’s smirk that made the other scoffed, “By the way, what’s the deal with Jinki? He looks like he’s been sitting on thorny cushion the whole dinner!”

Minho knows Taemin would ask such question eventually. However, he couldn’t say that Jinki hates the whole dinner date plan, it’s impossible. Besides that, knowing him for years, Jinki really is an angel in disguise, well, at least when he’s in the mood.

“People have different, what should I say, defense mechanism? And that’s how he is. What kind of person who talked nonstop during their first meeting, anyway?”

“Oh, I don’t know, me?”

“That’s why you’re a freak.”

“A freak who introduced you to your potentially next boyfriend.”

“Ha. Point taken,” Minho raised his hand to ask for the dessert, “Jinki is just not the type of person who will talk a lot and open up in a second. But I guarantee you, he’s a good person. Sometimes a little bit care too much for other at certain time so probably being brazen is his forte.”

“That reminds me of someone.”

Taemin and Kibum spent their high school days together. Separated for some years due to works and educations, their relationship’s all well maintained. They understand each other, including Kibum’s nature to always put others before him at any given situation.

“Appearance wise, though, what do you think about Jinki?”

“Choi Minho, I’m not a teenager anymore. Judging people around by its cover is no longer my habit.”

“But a designer like you must love a beautiful package, don’t they?”

“Well, to be honest, his lips and eyes itself could get me floored in one glance.”

“I knew it.”

“You’re a famous photographer for a reason.”

***

Cold wind slapped Kibum’s cheeks lightly when he pushed the door and parched to the corner near the valet post.

“Okay, now you can speak. Sorry, I don’t know why the reception wasn’t good enough inside.”

“Then I’ll be frankly here. There’s a possibility for making the special edition for the short story collection. But then, we’re still short of two stories at the moment.”

“Wait, wait, but we already have nine! I finished writing nine! Why should I add another two?”

“The publisher agreed to the preposition for at least twelve stories. You should be grateful I could pitch one less story!”

Kibum looks like he’s about to punch anyone passed within radius one meter around him, but nothing in reach besides a huge pot of short palm tree and concrete wall. And he needs his hand to finish his books still.

“But, Amber. Page wise, those are more than enough to make two new books. Are they out of their mind?”

There’s a loud groan banging on his ear drum came from the other line, “Dude, I almost flipped the table when I was at the meeting you have no idea. The board has new man and that guy is a pain in the ass.”

“Would it change the circumstance if I talked to them by myself?”

“Since when do they have time to talk to the writer directly? We’re head to head with bunch of snobs here, did you forget?”

“I should had not agree to let them touched my writings. Now we’re about to face dead end.”

It was a dream to work along this publisher. It was Kibum’s dream since he started writing when he took gap year after graduated high school. And as if it’s a fate, it was the only publisher agreed with his graphic novel concept five years he climbed his career professionally.

“Listen, Kibum. When I met you years ago, I promised I’ll work my ass hard to help you publishing your books. Not because I knew you, it’s because you’re good. You’re amazing writer and I’m not giving up easily. And neither you. Not when anybody can tell that you’re a gem.”

“I haven’t written any book since last year, Amber. I’m in a slump. Writer’s block is not even describing my bad luck at the moment.”

“Honey, you haven’t written any because you’re currently waiting two books released. And if I could do my magic, another one in, let’s say, six months.”

“If I could make up some words into another story within two weeks. If you could convince them to give me mercy.”

“Did you just know me yesterday?”

Kibum’s tired giving sane response, “What do you mean?”

“I’m waiting their secretary to call me in ten minutes. We’re going to discuss some new deals and I’ll make sure one of them is going to be your new nine stories book.”

“I actually have no idea if I don’t have you as my editor slash manager slash friend slash personal ranting partner slash whatever you want to be.”

“Rockstar. That would be cool.”

“You’re going to be a kick ass one to be honest.”

“I bet. Anyway, expect another call from me in the next couple hours. I’m sorry, but tonight we might need video call to resolve some issues.”

“I hate you for confiscating my time but you’re the best.”

“As always, ain’t I?”

The phone call ends already, but he still forlornly looking at his phone’s screen. With that, Kibum remembers all the works he needs to catch up for tonight. With that, he can put aside all the unnecessary anxiety and tension of tonight’s stupid match making session.

He took a glance of his watch and could only sighed, he better hurried inside to his dessert. The faster he finished, the sooner he can hit home and face the real deal. His deadlines.

Two steps away from the entrance however, he caught a familiar face sitting by themselves, staring to the busy street in front of the restaurant.

“Jinki?” he carefully calling the man, “Lee Jinki, right?”

The later tilted his head to the right and gave Kibum a simple smile, didn’t realize it dropped Kibum’s heart by the bottom of his gut.

“Aren’t you cold?”

Everyone would agree this winter is even harsher than last year’s. Jinki just lifted his left hand to make sure Kibum saw a cigarette slipped between his fingers, “Can I sit here?”

Jinki chuckles, “Aren’t you cold?”

Listening to the same question he threw a minute ago, he just rolled his eyes and took a place next to the other man.

“I’m waiting a phone call.”

“Important?”

“Kinda.”

Jinki blew some smoke out, “Hmm, I guess so. You sounded pretty upset over there.”

“Did I scream that loud?!”

“In my opinion? No. but a girl flinched and buzzed off rather hastily, so, you tell me.”

When he saw Kibum’s gaping like a fish in frantic expression, Jinki has no choices beside laughed again, surprising Kibum who’s quite convinced with his aloof personalities.

“I didn’t know you have so many jokes in store.”

“You learn something new every day.”

“Your face doesn’t show.”

“What about my face?”

“It’s handsome but with that attitude inside, seems like you’re the type who woke up at the wrong side of the bed every single morning and could kill someone annoys you at any time.”

“Well, to be fair, I did wake up in the wrong side of my bed this morning. But it’s because a certain dog occupied half of my blanket so I couldn’t disturb her.”

“You have a dog?!”

Kibum’s face lit up thousand times as if he just won some lottery. Strangely, it warms Jinki’s heart. No, scratch that, it would warm any heart, Jinki tried to generalize the situation.

“I don’t, unfortunately. She belongs to my friend. I’m taking care of her while he’s travelling abroad. Her father will pick her up this weekend.”

“Ah, too bad. We could have play date with my boys.”

“I’ll make sure to give you a call when I decided to adopt one later.”

“Do you think my invitation hasn’t expired yet by that time?”

“A man can only dream, can’t he?”

Kibum’s laughter is muffled by his own palm covering his mouth.

“Let’s go inside, you must be shivering.”

“But your cigarette?”

Kibum’s half stuttered caught red handed, Jinki already pressed the half-done cigarette on the sand bowl on his left, “I can always have another one at home. Besides, I doubt you would go inside without me dragging you along.”

Kibum thanked the universe that the place is not well lit, so he could hide the blush creeping his cheeks. Unfortunately, Jinki has a very good eye sight.

***

“Is my baby being a good girl when daddy’s away?”

Jinki scoffed when the man just entered his living room just literally threw his suitcase aside and scooped the little dachshund running toward his embrace. He gathered the suitcase and poor leather bag on the floor and placed it neatly near the saffron color couch.

The man later dropped himself next to Jinki who’s lounged himself there, checking his phone halfheartedly.

“Minho texted me the other day.”

“Why did he keep texting you?”

The man with dark grey hair didn’t catch the frown hanging on Jinki’s face and buried his face to the dog’s belly, making him groaned again. He lightly pushed the dog further and toppled his head on the other man’s laps.

The dog owner realized something’s happened when he’s not around. He put the dog on the ground and tapped her butt to send her back to her small bed near the pantry.

“Minho has my number and I have his name in my contact list. He can text me whenever he wants. Still jealous?”

Jinki closed his eyes when he started playing with his hair, “He’s still one of the reasons we broke up.”

“Baby, the only reason we broke up is because neither of us didn’t want to succumb into marriage. Minho was just a handsome face happened on the wrong time.”

“I have no idea why I still befriend him when it’s clear he wanted to shove his face to yours, all the damn time.”

“And I have no idea that you’re this type who holds the grudge for a long time. We were already out of relationship back then.”

“Still, a friend wouldn’t openly chase after their friend’s ex.”

“A friend wouldn’t, but a best friend would.”

“Whatever.”

He almost lost his control and slapped Jinki’s head of him, “Oh, come on. What’s bothering you this time?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit. It’s written all over your face the second I saw you behind the door. And I’m pretty sure it’s not because my daughter misbehaved while I’m on my annual pediatric conference.”

Jinki sighed, nothing he could really hide it from the other man. Since they were in their almost five years relationship, since they became best friends around three years prior.

“Minho invited me for a dinner night.”

“Wow, fancy,” actually Minho already texted him about the dinner a bit, how he wanted to introduce Jinki to some acquaintance he has, “He gave up on me so he went for the only option?”

“For the record, your mom agreed that I’m way much sexier than you.”

“Three years ago, before your cheek bones buried under those mount of fluffy fat.”

“Said a man who came to me and straight ahead told me I looked cute after leaving a piece of paper with their number on my table.”

“I will put aside the fact that I love how romantic you’re for still remembering our first meeting but let’s back to the right path here because I don’t like the upset you. It’s fucking annoying.”

“He introduced me to someone, Jonghyun.”

He let out inaudible gasp and thanked the universe Jinki’s still closing his eyes. Otherwise, he would stop at once and avoided any discussion of the main reason which distressed his ex-boyfriend. Knowing the scenario before hands didn’t prevent him with the sheer pain graze him when it came from Jinki’s mouth himself.

“So? Isn’t that great? Do you think it’s about time?”

“I was about to argue that two years are still not enough to get over you but I guess you’re not in the same page with me so I’d say that I’m not interested into some relationship whatsoever at this point.”

Jonghyun wanted to cry listening to such words. His heart clenched, he inhaled – a very long one – before he continued caressing Jinki’s forehead.

“I am flattered, but I know you’re just teasing me.”

“Ha, you know me so well.”

“I’m not gonna fall on the same hole, Lee.”

“You won’t. You’re too smart to repeat the torture on the loop.”

“It wasn’t a torture, Jinki. I love you as much as you do. Or maybe just slightly more.”

“Not a chance. I love you more.”

“Stop it or I will kiss you.”

“I dare you.”

“I told you I’m not gonna fall on the same hole.”

“Smart, very smart,” Jinki opened his eyes only to find Jonghyun sticking his tongue out, “Okay, so at first, I don’t like the idea already. You know I hate any type of match making method. Even the online one. But being there, I realized that my current focus doesn’t involved other party besides me, my business, and—“

“And your grandfather?”

Jinki looks annoyed, “Remind me to add ‘always-cutting-people-sentence’ on the list of reasons why I broke up with you when I’m writing my journal tonight.”

“It’s true. I think he was also the cock blocker during our relationship back then.”

“Dude, we’re talking about my gramps. And to put him on the same category with Minho is beyond weird.”

“We already broke up when Minho made his move, for Pete’s sake!”

“Okay, okay! No need to raise your voice, you’re so scary when you’re angry.”

“Then don’t make me! Now, now, can you please be a normal human being so we can talk like adults for once?”

Jinki pulled himself from the couch to the pantry, snatching a pack of cigarette on the tea table before slipped one on the corner of his mouth.

“Can you not smoking inside?”

He snorted and padded to the direction of his balcony. It’s in the middle of winter but he doesn’t care a bit to the wind ready to slaughter his bones. If tomorrow the cold prevented him to leave the bed, then let it be. For once, he just wants to free his mind from the business.

“You need to remember that I can only treat patient on certain age,” Jonghyun followed few minutes after with a blanket he spread as wide as possible to cover both of them without feeling suffocated for standing too close.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people be under pediatric care up to the age of 21, though.”

“Did you just quote Wikipedia? And we’re not in fucking States! Above and beyond, shame on your wrinkles!”

“Rude.”

“You’re the rude one to your lungs!”

“Then tell me how to ease my mind without nicotine! Tell me how to forget all those troubled night and just sleep! Do you think it’s easy taking care of worrisome business and messy family without distraction?! Stop talking non sense if you do know how to save my days!”

Any word seems taboo once Jinki exploded. Both man just staring into the dark evening below Jinki’s unit. People paraded as quickly as possible on the street to fight the harsh weather. It’s not that late, but only few cars passed by. The dim light of the street lamp’s soothing the tense atmosphere in a way.

Jonghyun leaned closer to Jinki’s arm and rested his head on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with that.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” 

“You know that you can always talk to me right?”

“I’m tired bothering you. You already have a lot in your hands.”

“Besides my patients and Roo, there’s nothing really confiscated my time.”

Having someone like Jonghyun who would stand next to him, scold him then hug him right after, no matter how awful he behaved and treated the other man, Jinki every so often thinking what kind of good deeds he did in his previous life.

Jinki cocked his head, inhaling the trace of scent of Jonghyun’s favorite shampoo. Initially, he was about to kiss the top of his head, like he used to do when the other man leaned on him for whatever reason it was. He remember, though, the earlier period after their broke up – after settling their feelings for few months of course – the shorter man told him not to do that anymore because it was the doctor’s Achilles heel. So instead, he rubs his cheek over the thick hair, silently telling Jonghyun he’s sorry.

Some nights – especially right after that dinner date – he had thought, maybe one of the reason he reprimands Minho’s idea is just because he still has tiny hope that Jonghyun and him might had another chance in the future.

“From time to time, I was thinking that the more day passed, we’re closer to the image of friends with benefit.”

“Friends with benefit? Tsk,” Jonghyun slapped his forearm, “The only benefit I got from you is you’re the only perfect nanny for Roo when I’m away.”

“Those cups of coffee every single time you stopped by my shop?”

“Pfft. How stingy. I’m leaving.”

“Heartless.”

Jonghyun didn’t say anything more and returned inside to gather his things and called Roo. He desperately needs some hot shower. Somewhere inside him, he was expecting Jinki offering him to stay the night knowing how caring the man and the fact Jinki knows he bolted to the other’s apartment right away after landed.  

When Jinki handed him the leash, that hope vanished in second.

“What if later I really considered this person? Or any other person collided with me on the future?”

Jonghyun smiled, he looks tired, but very sincere, “Then good.”

“Because I’m not gonna bother you anymore?”

“No. Because you’ll have someone to share the happiness with.”

***

cross-posted in my AFF

[jbuffyangel]

Weekly Rundown 10/21/18-10/26/18

Time to rundown what I’m watching, loving, hating and everything in between! Spoilers ahead! Full episode reviews and reactions are linked in the titles.

Daredevil Season 3

Just so y’all know - most nuns do not wear their habits in public anymore. It’s been that way since Vatican II, but TV refuses to catch up.

The action is amaaaaazing again. I love how Matt actually gets tired when he’s fighting.

I don’t want Matt to put that ugly Daredevil suit on again he looks ridiculous. Keep the black mask and call it a day.

I want Foggy to propose very badly. I need a Foggy wedding in Season 4.

Is there any particular reason why Karen didn’t haul ass to Frank’s Punisher lair when her life was in danger and Matty Mcbrown eyes was off Daredeviling an existential crisis? That’s where I’d go.

Matt refusing to ask the other Defenders help because “it’s not their fight” is the stupidest reason ever.

Arrow (“The Longbow Hunters”)

It is a bit creepy when Stan says, “I bet a guy like that would do anything to keep his family safe.” Maybe Stan is a nuthouse, but leave me to my dream for now.

Is it me or did Yorke look older than 40? 1978????

Deputy Director Bell is evil. Calling it now.

The Longbow Hunters don’t actually use bows. This is a twist I did not see coming.

Bl*ck S*ren can’t lawyer worth a damn, but she can wear a suit.

“Stay behind me.” That was oddly hot Rene. I’m wildly uncomfortable that I find you attractive right now, but it is what it is.

Rene: Been back in town a week and you’re already sneaking out of A.R.G.U.S. behind Papa Dig’s back? I’m so proud.

Felicity: Thanks man.

This whole exchange was delightful and not remotely derogatory like “Blondie.” THY NAME IS CHARACTER GROWTH.

“Grab your balls Curtis, we’re going in.” If the Rene character only exists to say this one line of dialogue then it was worth it.

Why didn’t BS and Dinah go after the Longbow Hunter? What is up with allowing all these criminals to run away at a moderately brisk pace and our people acting like they can’t catch them? They are called legs! Move your ass!  

BITCH YOU BETTER NOT STEP ON THAT PHOTO!!!!!!!

Legends of Tomorrow  (“The Virgin Gary”)

Legends Season 4 premiere is fantastic and full of all the hi-jinks I’ve missed over hiatus.

“Speaking of the same old crap isn’t that what he did last year?”Legends gets points for acknowledging that Wally gets the storyline shaft a lot.

When you are officially a hero the time bureau gives you a medal, but I was more excited about the balloons.

It would be super weird if the Legends spent more than a day in 2018.

Remember when Oliver asked Sara to move in with him and she went running screaming in the other direction? It all worked out because Sara knew he was really in love with Felicity. I’m just saying she’s come a looooong way.

I want to be clear about one thing and it’s not up for debate. Ready? The best thing about Legends is Mick. It’s always Mick. That is all.

OMG NATE’S FATHER IS BIFF FROM BACK TO THE FUTURE?????!!!!!!!! THIS IS SPECTACULAR CASTING!!!

Manifest “Connecting Flights”

It was nice to fill in the back story of the characters left behind after the plane went missing, however the show is starting to lose my attention. I need more movement on these character relationships. Manifest is hitting a lot of the same notes week after week.

This Is Us (“Toby”)

Randall is going ahead with the city council job? Are they independently wealthy Does no one have to work?

Baby Toby is the cutest.

Holy crap is this how in vitro really works? It’s so friggin expensive and no guarantees. Wow, my sympathies to all those who have gone through this excruciating process.

Randall unbuttoning his shirt is all the reason I need to vote for him. Done deal. 

Toby used his wonderful sense of humor to cheer up his depressed Mom. Ugh my heart.

But for real though sometimes you need just “one damn day.” #MomLife

Three hours to get ready Kate? Just as an FYI - that’s all over when you have a baby. You’ll be lucky to get a shower.

Miguel carried a piano up stairs to cheer Rebecca up. That’s love.

“There’s so much of her in you it scares me.” THAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU SAY TO YOUR CHILD ASSHOLE.

A+ on the prom dresses. Absolutely what I wore in high school. We were fashionista slaves in the late nineties.

Kate’s impression of Adele is dead on.

Miguel tries so hard. He’s just trying to keep his promise to Jack.

Rebecca is such an amazing mom. Kate doesn’t give her nearly enough credit.

KATE IS PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Rookie (Pilot” and “Crash Course”)

I really loved The Rookie. I typically don’t hate procedurals, but this one has surprised me thus far. It’s fast paced, so it held my attention more. I hope it stays that way. 

I love how it is the rookies versus the training officers. It fills my Rookie Blue void.

I am not invested in any ships yet. I am not buying the romance between Nolan and Lucy so far. I actually think Lucy has more chemistry with Bradford and Nolan with the Captain.

A Million Little Things (“Friday Night Dinner” and “The Game of Your Life”)

I want to love this show, but they are making it next to impossible. I hate cheating storylines in any show. It’s one of the main reasons I quit watching Shonda Rhimes’ shows because she is unable to write one without including adultery. Arrow’s original love story revolved around cheating and was an absolute mess. It feels like a lazy way to inject drama. This cheating storyline between Eddie and Delilah is making two characters who are otherwise very likable extremely unlikable. 

Instead of jettisoning this plot into the atmosphere where it belongs and never speaking of it again, A Million Little Things is double down on it.  Delilah is pregnant! Oh wonderful, now we get to play “Who’s the Daddy?” for several weeks.

Apparently, the writers come from The Fl*sh school of writing. Characters can only be mad at other characters for one episode. All the friends found out about Eddie and Delilah’s affair and the very next week they are sitting down to pizza. It’s at Delilah’s house and Eddie’s wife Katherine comes too because FRIENDS. No. Just no.

Instead of being angry at Eddie and Delilah, the friends make excuses for them. Regina’s conversation with Delilah turned into a huge “I didn’t see your pain” apology, which is flat out ridiculous. What Delilah did was so off the charts wrong there is no excuse for it. If you are in pain see a therapist. It’s not an excuse to cheat on your husband. Also, Regina you are not to blame for Delilah lying to everyone for over two years. 

Gary, who has been the angriest, decides he’s being too hard on Eddie (ya know by actually holding him accountable for his actions) and lets Eddie move in with him after his wife finally kicked him out. Are you freaking kidding me with this? I was already mildly irked at Gary for giving Delilah a free pass, but I understood his reasoning because her husband just jumped off a building. She has been punished quite a lot. But Eddie? I think we could muster a couple episodes of anger towards Eddie.

The writers attempted drum up sympathy for Delilah by shining a little light on her seemingly perfect marriage with Jon. It’s not really perfect, but what marriage is? Jon was short with Delilah during a family dinner. He took a phone call from work and snapped, “Everything I do is for this family.” What a bastard. Of course, that is reason enough for Delilah to jump into bed with Eddie, her husband’s best friend. GIVE. ME. A. FRIGGIN. BREAK. If my husband slept with someone else every time I was cranky with him, he’d have a harem.

So, on top of being suicide apologists, the writers are adding cheating apologists. There is no reason to cheat. It’s just mean. Nobody has put a gun to your head. If you want out of your marriage you march to an attorney’s office and file for divorce. Not sure if you want a divorce? Then go to counseling. But cheating, under any circumstances, is wrong. It’s cruel and selfish. It’s trying to have your cake and eat it too. A Million Little Things trying to excuse away Eddie and Delilah’s heinous behavior is almost as bad as the cheating itself. Trying to make suicide and cheating okay with excuses is dangerous behavior. I AM NOT A FAN.

Stray Thought - on what planet is a school program presented in the middle of the freaking day? What kind of ridiculous school do Eddie and Katherine send their son to?

Blindspot (“The Quantico Affair”) 

Zapata has a very interesting running stride. Sorry I was in cross country. That stuff interests me

Roman saying "He knows. This is it. Kill him" underscores the dramatic tension.

I’m gonna need someone on Team Blindspot to pick up on Remi's side eye. Y'all are FBI agents for goodness sake.

I don't actually know what Patterson's name is, but I feel confident it is not Lisa.

I think Martin Gero saw me write "Where is Patterson's storyline?" in my last review. I could have opted for patience, but complaining loudly via written word felt like a better plan. 

Hey watch the condemnation Remi aka Jane aka double secret agent who told so many lies I can't keep it straight anymore.

OMG Rich not explaining how the tattoo was solved is the best thing ever. PLEASE DO THIS EVERY WEEK

I wanna talk about the Book of Secrets mostly because Rich calls it the Book of Secrets.

Hahaha. Her one night stand showed up at work. This is how Meredith and McDreamy began. I highly recommend elevator scenes too.

One night stand boy is Weitz's nephew. IT. JUST. GOT. BETTER

Sure Madeline come on in and check out our super secret tattoo murder board.

"Thundercats ho!" OMG was that an ad lib?

Totally ship Patterson and this dude. I should probably learn his name.

Somebody tell Rich about the one night stand. Pleeeeeeeease.

I'm not calling him Lincoln. He shall be known as "Slab of Man-Ham" forevermore.

Patterson and Rich are the perfect work wife/husband team. Remember Rich is the work wife

How does Weitz maintain employment? This may be the greatest of all Blindspot's mysteries.

Of course "Jane" and Weller are on the train Weitz. IT'S THEIR JOB. Seriously someone get this dude a DVD of #Blindspot S1-S3

Patterson girl, Jane is never that cranky with you when she's diffusing bombs. SOMEBODY NOTICE PERSONALITY CHANGES PLEASE!!!

"You're new here." ALL KNEEL TO PATTERSON.

[miasswier]

miasswier’s ultimate glee ranking: no 38

38: Wheels

Written by: Ryan Murphy Directed by: Paris Barclay

Overall Thoughts: How in the world did I forget how incredible this episode is?!?!?!! I remember all the awesome things that happen in this episode, but somehow forgot that they all happen in this episode – for some reason I thought Defying Gravity was in “Ballad”? I don’t even know. Anyway, this episode is absolutely fantastic, but I’m going to head straight into what I like about it because I don’t want to repeat myself too much!

What I Like:

This is the first episode of Glee that actually feels like we’re watching an ensemble show. Artie and Kurt get their own subplot, and Tina gets a little bit of the spotlight too. Also, Puck and Quinn get to interact for a solid two or three minutes throughout this episode without either Finn or Rachel getting involved. And Will isn’t as central to the plot! It’s honestly fantastic

The introduction of Becky Jackson, who would become one o f the most hilarious characters in all of Glee. It’s really interesting seeing her here, and how different she is from how she ends up. You can definitely see Sue’s influence on her, and while in some areas it’s a bad thing, overall I think it was really good for her. She ends the series with so much confidence that it’s absolutely blinding, and I think the way Sue treats her really helps her.

Sue calling Will out for being ableist in the guise of being open-minded. Becky very clearly has no problems with Sue telling her she needs to improve, and she also responds to her in a way that no other Cheerio ever does – she straight up tells Sue that she’s trying, but it’s difficult. No other Cheerio ever says anything like that to Sue. Even though we watch Becky grow in her confidence and independence, you can already see the seeds of that here. Seriously, I just absolutely adore Becky Jackson and her relationship with Sue, and I’m totally willing to fight people who don’t.

The scene with Puck and Quinn “baking”. This is honestly the scene that made me fall in love with these two as a couple. It’s adorable, it’s hilarious, and it’s really, really sweet. I think it’s the first time in the whole show that we actually see Quinn genuinely happy. It’s refreshing.

Puck calling Finn out on his shit, how he’s always complaining about how hard this is on him but never seems to realize that it’s a thousand times harder for Quinn. The fact that it took five whole episodes of Quinn being pregnant before somebody asked “what about how she’s feeling” is really sad, though.

Burt sticking up for Kurt and not taking any of Will’s bullshit.

Burt being faced with the reality that Kurt is being bullied, and probably will be bullied for the rest of his life. It’s an emotional scene, and while it’s nice to see Burt tell Kurt that “nobody pushes the Hummel’s around”, you can also see how it’s just hitting him that Kurt doesn’t have it easy, and will never have it easy, all because other people are narrow minded and stupid. He never once blames Kurt or asks him to stop being himself – in fact, he encourages Kurt to continue being himself, and seems legitimately angry when Kurt admits he flubbed the note. It’s really refreshing, coming from the guy who “isn’t in love with the idea” of his son being gay and isn’t ready to have a conversation about Kurt and guys yet.

Kurt being willing to sacrifice a solo because he doesn’t want his father to be hurt by the bullying he faces. I feel like this really defines a huge part of Kurt’s character, and it’s nice to see him becoming fleshed out.

Will drawing attention to the fact that McKinley High isn’t accessible, and Artie wanting to use the Glee bake sale money to build a ramp in the auditorium. I’m really glad that they touched on the issue of accessibility without getting too “life is hard enough for Artie as it is can’t we make it just a little easier for him?”, which I find a lot of shows, movies, and books tend to do. They focus wasn’t on how hard Artie’s life is because he’s in a wheelchair, it was on the fact that the lack of accessibility in the school is what makes his life harder. He isn’t the problem the – the school is.

Brittany openly and honestly being friends with Becky – not because she feels pity for her, but because she actually likes her. I have no idea how this Brittany eventually turned into the awful, mean-spirited Brittany that we were subjected to throughout most of seasons 3 and 4. I feel like people always want to focus on Quinn’s character assassination but honestly, this show did Brittany so dirty.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the scene between Tina and Artie at the end. I do think they’re super cute and super sweet, and the scene definitely has that tone. Tina revealing that she doesn’t have a stutter and doesn’t feel like she has to keep faking because now she’s in Glee and doesn’t want to push people away is sweet, but I also really appreciate that Artie calls her out when she says that they’re the same, because he’s right, when it comes to this, they’re not. He can’t fake the fact that he’s in a wheelchair, and it was unfair of her to act like they have something in common because of a speech impediment that she’s been faking for years. That being said…

Things I Don’t Like:

… it’s not like Tina gets to fake being Asian. Artie acts like because Tina doesn’t have a stutter she suddenly isn’t a minority and doesn’t know what it’s like to be discriminated against. To be fair to Artie, though, Glee never really addressed race issues on a large scale, and was honestly full of microaggressions and just… overall had a very bad, very ugly relationship with race. So it’s not like Artie is specifically being ignorant (and I mean, for fucks sake, he’s a fourteen-year-old, I don’t expect him to be completely knowledgeable on intersectionality and oppression), it’s just how Glee rolls. It still rubs me the wrong way, though.

Small addition to that, who the fuck has their first date in their high school after hours? Why?

The fact that we finally get to see some of the everyday struggles that Artie faces because the school simply isn’t accessible, but it’s shown through a montage of Finn and Rachel struggling with these things.

Finn and Rachel using a fake disability in order to get Finn a job. That is honestly so disgusting and gross, I can’t even begin to explain how awful it is. Ugh.

Quinn making no effort to get a job herself, but insisting that Finn do so. Look, I’m usually on Quinn’s side in this whole story, but in this episode she is honestly being quite unreasonable. Especially considering Finn isn’t actually the father of her baby, and she knows that full well.

Rachel acting like she deserves the solo that was literally handed to her. If you don’t work for something you can’t get mad when it’s taken away. Also, that line where she’s like “maybe one day you’ll find a way to create teaching moments without ruining my life” makes me roll my eyes SO HARD. How is Will supposed to ever teach anybody anything if you demand all of his attention and every single song ever sung? For fucks sake…

Everybody acting like Brittany shouldn’t be hanging out with Becky, and seeming surprised that the two are friends. Fuck off, you assholes.

Songs

Dancing with Myself: Artie’s first real solo. I can’t believe it took nine episodes for us to get this. Artie’s voice is amazing, and this slowed-down version of the song really works. I especially like how the instruments fade away at the end and we see that it’s really just Artie singing alone in the auditorium. It really works to showcase how lonely and isolated he feels. My only issue is that we are forced to watch Will awkwardly creeping. I wish they could have let Artie just have his moment, instead of making it about Will deciding to be Noble.

Defying Gravity: I’m a huge Wicked fan, so this cut version has always sort of irked me, mostly because they cut my favourite part of the song. I also am not really a fan of the Rachel sections of this song (and I’ve never bothered listening to the full Rachel solo version) because I feel like she sounds too much like Idina Menzel and what’s the point of doing a cover if you just sound exactly like the original singer? The format of it for the diva-off is cool, though, and Kurt sounds awesome. It really does suck that they forced him to mess up the note when Chris Colfer specifically wanted to sing this song.

Proud Mary: I love this song! The energy is awesome, and I feel like it’s the first real group number that we get. The choreography is awesome, and the outfits are adorable. Really a fantastic way to end a fantastic episode.

[shionnaraaa]

FUJOSHI 腐女子 01

❇• o1. Prince and Prince •❇

There's a saying that, "Princess is meant to be with the prince and they'll live happily after..." But your belief is the total opposite. You believe that, "Prince and prince must be together and will have a happy ending."

And that's how it should be.

Yes. Because, you're an otaku and a fujoshi. And your gay heart is too weak for BL.

A loud cheers and squeals of girls snapped you back to reality as they cheered for the hearthrobs' basketball practice.

"Jaemin! Jaemin! Kyahhh~~"

"Lee Jeno! Lee Jeno!"

You watched Jaemin passed the ball to Jeno and shoot the ball to the basket with perfect poise that made their team won an another round. Jaemin smiled at Jeno whilst walking into his way, Jeno also plastered his smile, showing his crescent shaped eyesmile. Jaemin swung an arm at Jeno.

One.

Jeno smacked his shoulder.

Two.

They did their signature bro fist.

Three.

"Three points! Ehehehe..." You squealed in a low voice - lowkey fangirling your ship. Yes, you ship them ever since the beginning of school year You drooled, imagining the ship to sail. Eventhough, it is impossible.

The girls standing in front of you temporarily stopped cheering, looking at you with a straight judging face — disgusted,

"Yuck, that fatty is so disgusting! How could she make a face like that?"

"Is she imagining that she could be together with either Jeno or Jaemin?"

"Dream on Naruto. Fatty's doesn't look good for either of Jeno or Jaemin. They might die because of the cholesterol she had in her body."

Actually, you were too oblivious of what they're saying and busy imagining your ship so you don't give a fuck. Until...

Until the basketball is flying into your direction that made the girls in front of you screeched and ran away. You were the only one left. You're now the target - to be specific, the ball hit your belly.

The ball bounced back and so your belly wiggled like a jelly. The players stopped and the crowd produced a flabbergasted gasp. Jaemin stood, shocked.

He was the one who hit you.

He ran into you then Jeno and the crowds followed. He shook your shoulder, panicky. "Hey, Danbi-ssi! Are you alright?", Jeno beside Jaemin asked you. His eyesmile faded, replaced by a worried one. You curled into a ball, clutching your stomach and let out a groan. You opened your eyes and saw Jeno beside Jaemin - you felt like you're in heaven. Not because of you're surrounded by handsome guys, because your ship is in front of you.

As long as I saw my ship sailing, I'll be happy, you thought. And now you see nothing but black.

Everyone panicked, but Jaemin felt the panic the most since he's at fault. "Yah! Fatty don't die!"

-

A bright light is the first thing you see when you woke up. You look at the surroundings and you saw your bestfriend, Koeun. "Thank goodness, you're awake. Are you okay, Danbi-ah?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just my belly hurts, what just happened? Why am I in the infirmary?" I massaged the painful part of my belly, groaning a bit.

"Oh..." She stood up and kept the medical kit in the cabinet and faced me, "You passed out a while ago when the basketball hit your belly."

You hummed as response when you finally remembered what happened. Then you reminisced about the NoMin ship, a light bulb appeared in your mind.

"Yah, Koeunnie." You called then she faced you, "Did you saw the NoMin ship sailing in the game?" You wiggled my eyebrows that made Koeun's eyes sparkle.

"Of course, Medical Committee will be always present! And it's not NoMin, it's JaeNo. Okay?" She smiled widely like her smile reached into her ears.

"I told you it's NoMin."

"JaeNo."

"Ahem!" A loud voice stopped Koeun and your bickering time. The voice drew both of your attention. "Excuse me, Eunji-sunbaenim. If your carbo-friendly friend is already fine, could you bring her out? There's another patient who would be needing the bed." Chenle bluntly said.

Koeun's fist clenched as if ready to punch his face. "Aish, this kid—" she hissed but you interrupted her. "Don't worry, Chenle-ssi. We'll be going now." You dragged Koeun out of the infirmary with you.

"Why didn't you let me scold that scumbag?" She was clearly pissed off when he called you "carbo-friendly".

"Just don't mind him, okay?" You hushed her. "But he's been so rude towards you. Tsk." She sulks but you just let out a soft chuckle and went back to your classroom. Whilst walking in the hallways, you passed by Mark together with Renjun both holding a big box. Your eyes shine, adding a new ship to your list.

MarkRen. Hehe, I'll make you two sail.

"Danbi-ssi, are you already fine?" Mark' s voice snapped you back then you realize you fell back to your fantasies. Again.

"Y-yes." You wiped off the saliva falling on down to your chin. "Thanks for asking me though. Wait, what's inside that boxes?" You changed the topic just to act like normal.

"O-oh... Obviously, these boxes are from the Art Clubroom. I took them out and bring them to the stockroom to save space in the clubroom. Mark visited me in the clubroom in timing, I needed him to help me." Renjun said in a sassy tone whilst rolling his eyes.

"Should I help? I feel like a useless member if I can't get to help the Art Club President." You pouted. Renjun shook his head, "No, today's your day off, you need to rest for a while. Plus, Mark is here to help me instead." He sternly said and looked away. Even though he's harsh — you can see a glint of fret in his face.

"Renjunnie", Mark called, "Can I put the box down for a minute? My arms hurts." He groaned.

"I'm sorry. And sure you can put them down for a while." Renjun's stern personality faded and both of them put down the box. Then, Renjun massaged Mark's shoulder. "Are now fine?"

"You don't need to massage it though." Mark nonchalantly shook his shoulder. "I insist." Renjun sternly replied.

Are the gods being kind to me now? Well, thank you for this daily bread. My soul is now satisfied, you thought.

Fantasy Time.

"Okay... Renjun-ssi, Mark-ssi, we have to leave for now. Good luck with the boxes!" Koeun dragged you, going to both of your classroom whilst you're having a wild imaginations of your ship.

"Okay then... Danbi, you should be careful next time!" Renjun patted your head, looking away because he doesn't want you to see his tomato face whilst Mark nodded his head, agreeing Renjun. You only hummed as a reply then bid your goodbyes.

"You know, Danbi. I sometimes think that if you're so lucky." She snickered. Your eyebrows cocked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

You two stopped for a while in front of the classroom door, "You always pass by the handsome guys! Isn't it amazing?" She squealed.

"Yes! Because, I can ship them and imagine some fluffy stuffs or an angsty one! Hehe." You drooled, imagining NoMin and MarkRen ship.

"Danbi, I really don't know if being too dense is good for you." She flatly said in a straight face. She opened the door for you and both of you entered in the classroom.

Jeno walked towards your direction, and Jaemin followed with an irked expression, "Danbi-ssi, are you already fine? Does your belly still hurts?" Jeno fretted.

"Nah, I'm now completely healed!" Because my ship sailed in front of me, and then you let the obscene spirit took over your mind — imagining NoMin doing something Jesus wouldn't do.

"Yah! Say sorry to her." Jeno commanded and the only thing came out from Jaemin's mouth is "tsk". "I'm sorry." Jaemin bowed, "I'm sorry for hitting you."

"It's really fine. Don't y'all worry." You replied.

Jaemin plastered a huge grin in his face, "Danbi-ssi, you look so funny a while ago. You looked like a life size Human Gelatin." He laughed, clutching his stomach then whole class followed.

Jeno's eyes widened, almost popped up. I'm gonna whip his ass after this, he thought. Koeun stood, freezes in her place.

"Aw, is that so? I'm happy for making people happy!" You smiled innocently. Jaemin and the class laughed even more.

The only thing Jeno and Koeun did is to facepalm because of your stupidity.

-

The class finally ended and your classmates cheered because they can already rest. They began dashing out of the hallways making the classroom very vacant. Koeun had to leave first since she has her meeting together with the Medical Committee.

Since you have nothing to do but you don't want to leave the campus yet, you visited your clubroom - the Art Clubroom. There are only two doors left to go there until an orange -haired guy bumped into you and bounced because of your huge belly. The papers he had in his arms fell and flies around that made him panicked.

"Yah! My scripts!" He wailed whilst picking up the papers. You crouched and helped him. After his papers are now returned, he scoffed at you. "Could you watch at what you're looking?!"

A sound of a door opening drew both of your attention, "Donghyuck-hyung, what happened?" A guy with platinum blond hair with came out.

"Ugh, this—this girl bumped into me and now the scripts are now crumpled! How am I going to memorize my lines if the scripts are now like this? Huh, Jisung?" he shouted that made the younger dude startled.

"U-uhmm... Don't worry, hyung. Let me fix that for you or just print  another script. Just calm yourself down first and stop being a hot headed, okay?" he calmly replied. "Huh, fine." Donghyuck spat.

Jisung faced you, "I'm sorry for what Donghyuck-hyung acted earlier, uh-uhmm...?"

"Park Danbi, from Art Club." Both of you bowed, then he saw your badge, realizing you're a senior.

"Okay, I'm really sorry, Danbi-sunbaenim." He bowed and dragged Donghyuck back to their clubroom.

Instead of going to your clubroom, you pivoted going out of the campus. The shock of Donghyuck's attitude is still there within you. You just forgot on going to your clubroom.

-

You arrived at your home excitedly because your favorite anime series, Celestia will air a new episode. You dashed to your room, making your brother's room (whose it's room is located beside your room) to quake. "Yah! Could you slow down?!" Your brother yelled but you don't give a shit about him - for now, Celestia is the most important for you.

You bounced at your bed, immediately grabbed your laptop for watching and smartphone for your tweets. As the episode started, you sang along with the opening theme song, not caring about your resonated voice.

Of course, you're a proud "professional frustrated singer".

As the episode began, you began cheering when your favorite character, Leon appeared.

"I'll take back my throne, in the name of my parents!"

The speed of your typing boosted, you keep tweeting about what you feel about seeing Leon on screen, about the graphics and etc.

A few minutes passed by...

Your phone fell into the floor, your tears fell into your cheek. "No way. It can't be happening! No!" Your voice trembled.

[No, Leon! You can't die like this! The world needs you!]

Leon died. You're fucking favorite anime character died. You can't accept it. The only thing you did is to freak out and wail so loud.

"Dannie, what happened to you?!"

"YOU FATTY SHIT, STOP FREAKING ME OUT!"

Your mom and brother panicked as they heard your screech. They keep knocking on your door, but you didn't even budge to open your door.

The last thing you did to curl like a ball, sobbing - like crazy.

[hirakdesherrani]

Few thoughts on the so-called on past week’s IB track:

(A sort of disclaimer) In a country where the top court acquitted the accused because a/c to the judges, the ‘victim did not struggle enough’ and ‘raise an alarm’ (Mathura rape case, 1979), speaking up about sexual harassment is nearly impossible. Representing this issue in popular fiction is thus, a huge challenge. What a survivor is going through, what are the repercussions/consequences of speaking up, etc is too difficult to portray in fiction. 

One recent film which revolved somewhat around this issue was Pink. I really liked that film, ‘cos as a Delhite, that movie, at least in some parts, was quite relatable. The movie starts out with 3 girls emerging out of a horrific scenario one night, and deciding to forget about that night. The fact that these were three independent, strong-willed, ‘urban’ girls who chose to suppress the incident, instead of reporting it; made it believable.  Because the question is: who is going to believe them? The immediate reaction of girls was that we’ve escaped, so lets try to put the night behind us. Its only when the perpetrators do not let the girls forget, and actually threaten/intimidate them to apologize for protecting themselves, that the girls are forced to take action. 

Coming back to subject here, portraying this issue with sensitivity is not something one can expect from Indian daily soaps. Upar se if its Ishqbaaaz to toh aur sone pe suhaga. I mean, Gul begum thinks that by making her heroines wear jeans she is presenting a ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ female lead on television, so suffice to say that this woman has the least credibility in Tellywood to portray an issue as sensitive as MeToo. But madam ko shauk chadhta toh kya kar sakte hai. 

Bringing it back to the plane of IB, I don’t get it that why do the CVs choose Gauri as the poster girl for their so-called “empowering” tracks? Be it the 2rs version of English Vinglish, and now this. 

The problem is that Gauri is an unreal character. I dunno what Gauri was supposed to be, but a/c to me Shrenu and Atif had significant leeway/freedom to portray Gauri the way they wanted to. Because everyone watching DBO was aware that they are watching the ‘Gauri Kumari Ssarma’ show. DBO is probs the only Gul show, where the OTP or the AYM male lead is not the highlight of the show. Gauri was the ‘hero’ of the show, and I’m consciously using the term ‘hero’ here because she got to do everything that the ‘heroes’ in Tellywood do. Gauri had almost become like this Batman-sort of character who is a fighter, she makes mistakes, falls down, but always gets up and defeats the villains at the end.  It was almost as if Gauri was not allowed to accept defeat or fail. 

To then make this Gauri, the subject of such “empowering” tracks, the CVs have to significantly change her character sketch and introduce artificial insecurities or other traits which do not set in well with her original character sketch. 

Despite my misgivings, I gave in and watched a few parts of this track, because my friends really praised it. I didn’t mind the Tuesday and Wednesday bits where Gauri is assaulted. The direction was off though, and it looked like some bits were cut because they overlapped weirdly. If Atif or LM had been directing the scene, it would’ve probably looked better, but then it would have been too scary for me to watch. 

My issue started with the Thursday episode (or whatever I saw of it). The fact that Gauri decided to keep quiet about the incident was not OOC, because DBO starts on the point that the whole village chooses to believe Kali Thakur instead of Gauri who they’ve seen grow up in front of their eyes. Omkara, the objective outsider in this plot, also chooses to believe the worst of Gauri. No one listened to or believed Gauri that time, and can well explain why she would think that no one will ever believe her. 

What annoyed me a lot, was that Gauri decides to let the perpetrator go scot free. Because this undos all the development in Bareilly track 2. [A short break here, I’ve seen a lot of fans comment that Kali Thakur did not actually molest Gauri unlike the superstar, and I feel people totally missed the danger KT presented. KT wanted to make Gauri his sex slave for life (and for his brothers too). I’m not comparing KT and the superstar, but it irks me that people really underestimate KT’s villainy]. Anyways, so by the end of Bareilly track 2 Gauri is not scared of KT anymore. Yes, she wants to escape him, but this time its a do or die situation for her. Because Gauri understood that as long as KT’s alive she (and her mother) would always be in danger, she cannot run from him forever. Which is why Gauri stabs him to death. IMO I think Gauri fully intended to close KT’s chapter there, because she looked like an avenging angel in that scene, it was not the fear she present in the first Bareilly track. 

For that Gauri, to now let the superstar go unpunished is out of character. Gauri would not speak up about the incident but she would let the matter rest. DBO Gauri would find some way to expose the creep for what he is, and in this case, take help from Anika and Bhavya, because it would be too much for her to face him so soon after the incident. 

For the sake of the track, the CVs had to significantly alter Gauri’s character sketch (like they did in the English track) to ‘fit’ the popular perception of a survivor of sexual harassment as portrayed in television and movies. Here I feel, Shrenu had to make a performance choice. There are moments were the real Gauri slips in the scenes for example a particular teeth gnashing and eyebrow frown expression which is peculiar Gauri expression, I really can’t explain it properly but there it is, and one sees that when Gauri traps the superstar in a carpet and escapes. 

Also, there was this particular dialogue which a lot of people had interpreted as “victim blaming herself” but I don’t think it was that. Victim blaming would have been if Gauri had said that its her fault that she is the fan of such a person or she was foolish to ask for a selfie. But what Gauri said that she should have been smart enough to smell him out, because, obviously Gauri being more intelligent than most should be the first one to smell a rat. 

If I analyze the track ignoring this character issue, there are still some false notes. No doubt Shrenu acted well (when does she not?) but the entire track seemed hollow. We have all the “checklist scenes”: the villain pulls the dori, tears the sleeve, the survivor screaming in half-darkness, trying to wash off the incident under the shower, sitting in darkness in the ‘typical’ pose depicted in posters, etc, but it was a conscious attempt to ape such tracks from movies than to come up with something original. The one shot that i did like was Gauri’s handprints on the painting of the woman, when she was struggling. That was symbolism done right, and it was organic. 

What really ruined the track for me was the whole sting operation bit. The idea behind MeToo is to have the victims speak up and find support in each other. If they had to go with the sting operation bit, then why not have Gauri devise a plan to expose the devil like she exposed Buamaa? The CVs altered her character sketch for the sake of the track only to have Shivika do what Gauri would herself have done in DBO. 

The only reason for the sting operation bit was to take close up camera shots of Surbhi. Surbhi is a stunning woman offscreen but I hate it when writers almost abuse the actor’s physical charm just because the actor possesses it. For example, how the makers of Jodha Akbar showed Akbar practicing sword fighting half-naked on the terrace of the palace, only because Hrithik Roshan has amazing abs. Like it was sooooo unbelievable that Akbar, the Mughal Emperor, would be training like this in the open unprotected, that too shirtless. This smacks of lack of integrity in the writers. 

After that the whole track lost meaning. And then we have the obligatory ‘everyone praising Shivika’ and Shivaay giving a lecture at the end, effectively murdering the entire set up for the track, which was precarious in the first place. So, this ‘track’ might have checked a lot of boxes, but at the end of the day it just came across as tokenism, for me.